Streaming my (Buffering) Life

8 is not enough

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:39:52 +0100

IMG_0056.m4v (3913 KB)

It’s been a little bit since my last post but a couple of things have happened since then; 1) We stopped in Bahrain and got shitty and 2) We are on a new schedule and it’s shitty.

Let’s start with the fun. I was lukewarm to say the least about going to Bahrain. It was going to be a hot, sweaty, working port in which we had DITS so I didn’t foresee us getting much liberty, so I could have cared less. Well, my foreseeing was right. We didn’t get much liberty because of all the work we had to do but the liberty we did get was pretty great. We worked all 3 days in port but I had the first 2 nights off and made the most of them with my liberty buddies. In typical fashion we had plans to go hit up the Navy exchange and buy some essentials and bring them back to the boat before going out for the night. Uh-huh, like that ever works. We did get to the NEX but I hardly bought anything because I didn’t want to lug it around as we ate and bar hopped. So I bought a couple shirts, some cologne and that’s about it. I really needed a lot more but I guess one of these days I will get to ordering online for the stuff I need.

Bahrain, I have been told, is the Vegas of the Middle East. And while it is not as glamorous, it is as hot but it does provide for some relief for weary, thirsty sailors who haven’t seen a port in a month. It’s struck me as odd because they have a large amount of American restaurants right outside the base. We decided on Chili’s because who doesn’t want Chips and Salsa? While the appetizers were great, the main course left a lot to be desired and on top of everything they didn’t even serve beer. This proved only to be a minor roadblock as we found a few other oasis’s along the way.

The first bar we moseyed on over to was Wranglers. Can you guess what kind of bar that was? And me without my flannel and shit-kickers on! We bellied up to the bar and threw a few back there. Good time had by all except for Shaddock who threw up all over himself after like an hour and then tried to blame the food. It would have been funny until he cleaned himself up and noticed that I had bought shirts and asked to use one of them. I honestly resisted giving in as long as possible but eventually got guilted into it. After a ridiculous number of shots we headed to the very happening Rock Bottom. Rock bottom is a fun, casual place to have a drink and meet the Asian hooker of your dreams. It’s also a place where they like to put fire into every drink possible as you can clearly see in the video. I met some new cool people who I really hope I get to see again before this deployment is over and I hear that the chances are pretty good we will be going back.

The rest of the night is a blur of shots and high fives and generally insanity. When I awoke from my, oh so peaceful slumber the next morning, I couldn’t remember much after leaving the club but I got filled in later by Gatlin. She told me basically that we found a duty van from one of the minesweepers that we shared a pier with and they offered to give us a ride. Apparently the guy was driving like a maniac and while I didn’t notice being thrown around the van, apparently my girl Langston did. Just as we were pulling up to the pier, cue Projectile Vomiting courtesy of Ms. Langston. We said “thanks” and “sorry” as we took off down the pier to make it back before midnight. After getting back on board I went down to my shop and harassed Fiorello who was on watch. I was told that I woke him up just to get a high five. He was not amused!

The second night was a carbon copy of the first with even a little more excitement in regards to action for me but I will leave that for another post if/when I make it back to Bahrain to finish what I started.

The last day I had duty and we all know how exciting that is. Before we hit Bahrain we had, as a division, been getting bitched at every day about something. Every single day was a new crisis and something else that we had messed up. We were getting tired of it and apparently so was our senior chief because he put us on 6 on, 6 off. Which means exactly that. You work 6 hours, off 6 hours (notice I didn’t say sleep.) It’s a pretty craptastic schedule and one we were not thrilled to be adopting. I really was surprised because I thought we had been doing things ok but apparently not. We had been on port and starboard which is 12 on, 12 off which is not great but better than 6 & 6. So after some negotiating we were able to come up with 8 & 8 with two sections. It’s not much better than 6 & 6 but it does allow for a smidge more sleep. So basically one day we work 16 hours (split shift) and one day is 8 hours, but the 8 hour day does not include additional training to take place outside of those 8 hours. Take all that into account with the drills and all hands working parties, and flight quarters and manning the boat decks and sleep becomes a rare commodity on this schedule. The hardest part is if you get screwed out of some regularly scheduled sleep, there is no time to make it up like there is with 12 hours off. When we were on 12 & 12, at least one day a week I would sleep all 12 hours off to catch up. That is a pipe dream now. We are hopeful this schedule doesn’t last but I’m not holding my breath.

Well the Dolphins lost to the Patriots today but my Orlando Magic are looking great so far. As they say, You can’t win ‘em all.

It’s almost time for turnover which means 5 hours of sleep before coming back.

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64 Pallets

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:03:30 +0100

This morning, I am sitting in radio and enjoying the peace and quiet and good life for a change. Watch was over 2 hours ago but I am chilling in here during stores unload. Stores unload is what the 64 pallets is about. We are pulling in to a certain middle eastern country (with a navy base) next week and instead of humping it our first day in port they decided to do a RAS and CONREP this morning. I know it seems like the ship is really trying to help the sailors out but really it’s just so we can get this out of the way to concentrate on all the other work that has to be done in port. I hope a large portion of my mail is on one of those 64 pallets, I have been waiting 6 weeks for some stuff while other people here have been getting packages after like 10 days of waiting.

This port visit coming up is a working port visit. No one is thrilled about it. The way it will probably roll is that we will work all day till about 1800 and then be able to head out and shop at the NEX and get some decent food and maybe a drink before being back on the boat by 2359. It’s gonna suck but as bad as it will be, we need to enjoy it cause rumor has it that we won’t be back in another port until Christmas. To add salt to the wound, my division is also going through DITS (Division in the Spotlight) while we are in port. DITS is basically a super inspection on you, your equipment, your knowledge and your spaces. I can almost guarantee there will be a whole post dedicated to DITS.

This week has been EMI-tastic this week. These 18 hour days are doing wonders for me. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before! (Note the sarcasm in my type) I am night of the living dead scary by the end of my shift. Appropriate for Halloween I guess. I did manage to get my PQS done and now I just need to take the test to get off EMI.

NBA season started a couple nights ago and my Orlando Magic are 2-0, a great way to start off the season, especially without Rashard. They have CASREP’d our DTS (Direct to Sailor) TV system, so hopefully we can get that fixed and get some sports up in this place. I am missing so much sports, it’s quite literally killing a little piece of me everyday.

I hope this working party is done with a quickness this morning so I can get a few meager hours sleep before I start this vicious cycle all over again.

They totally played Thriller this morning for reveille and I was living for it. Happy Halloween!

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EMI

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:26:09 +0100

What is EMI you ask? It is Extra Military Instruction. Who has two thumbs and just received an extra dose of it? This guy! I am getting smacked with it because of a PQS that I was assigned that I didn’t know about. The PQS is 302 Repair Parts Petty Officer. It is a PQS that is outside of my rate but one that was assigned to me anyway. Never mind the fact that I have completed 301, 302, 303, 304, 305 and working on 306 on my radio quals and 301-306 as well as 310 of my DC quals and 50% of my ESWS all within my first month. None of that matters though because this is Radio and this is the way things are run.

So what does all this mean? Basically that in addition to my 14 hours of regularly scheduled daily programming; I get an extra 2 hours tacked on for being a dirt bag. I’m really accelerating my life here.

I have so much contempt for my job right now that I can’t do anything except smile like an insane person. The ridiculousness of it all is laughable but I have come to expect it.

So let’s talk about something that is equally as laughable as this job, the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins are the bane of my existence right now. Well the second bane, I suppose. Yesterday they played the New Orleans Saints who were, and still are, undefeated. Nobody gave Miami a chance and on paper it didn’t look like it would be much of a game. The game started off pretty damn amazing for Miami as they jumped out to a 24-3 lead early in the second quarter and while I was ecstatic about the show they were giving, I have been a Dolphins fan long enough to know that you can never count on them not to screw you in the end. Halftime looked pretty good as we were still up by 13 after letting the Saints score with :05 left in the second quarter. This was a warning sign that things were headed downhill. Sure enough the Dolphins started to fade in the 3^rd quarter and the 4^th was a nightmare that I could not wake up from. The Saints scored the last 22 points of the game without nary a whimper from the Dolphins offense of defense. So naturally I curled up in the fetal position and cried myself to sleep. The Dolphins managed to cap off a craptastic week for me.

I really hope everyone has a great Halloween this year. I used to really love Halloween when I worked at the bar. The holidays that we decorated for always made that job a little brighter. We would go all out for Halloween. It was always one of the best nights of the year. This year for Halloween, I will be nothing because I will be sleeping during the day (after my EMI of course) and then working all night. It’s sort of how every holiday will be this year. Let the good times roll!

Well, there are some floors that need to be scrubbed and my ugly step sisters are yelling at me so this is Cinderella signing off for now.

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One of those weeks

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:43:40 +0100

Every day this week it has been one thing or another. I’ve done my best to try and let things roll off my back but it’s been tough. Work is draining and this lack of social interaction is worse then I had planned. Every little thing is working my last nerve, it’s like constant nails on the chalk board.

I’m trying to stay motivated and work on my ESWS. I actually have quite a bit done considering my limited time on board. I went around tonight and got a few more signatures but I am still not even at 50%. I will keep chugging along though and study my ass off for the board.

I have started to get maintenance work (3M) assigned to me with the division which is a distraction from the general sludge of daily blahness that I endure but I’m just getting started so I really don’t know much about it. I am kind of just guessing my way through which probably isn’t good for anybody. Tonight I had to go into the combat space (which is 90% dark) and had to crawl around and look for surge suppressors so I could tag them and do a multimeter test on them. I was supposed to find 8 of them but only came up with 5. It was pretty funny to watch people react when I would unplug their power strip as they lost access to facebook. Apparently the Navy is run on chat and facebook these days. Haha!

2 lessons I should have learned by this point in my life: 1) Don’t drunk text or call (still haven’t mastered that one) and 2) Don’t order crap online when I’m so tired I can’t see the screen. My most recent reminder of this is that earlier this week I ordered a few (15) shirts online and had it shipped to the boat and was very satisfied with myself and then tonight I was looking at the shipping email that I got and noticed that I failed to mention what ship I am on. So that’s a few hundred dollars that I don’t see myself wearing anytime soon. I suppose it’s possible that they might track me down via zip code but I don’t know that anyone in the military post office has that much motivation.

I am not much of a phone person and after this week I don’t care if I ever talk to another person back home. I must have called like 10 people this week and only got through to one (very special) person. I called morning, afternoon and night but the thing that probably killed any chance at speaking to anything other than voicemail is caller ID. Nobody is picking up when the phone number is just a random spattering of numbers. I don’t even know what the phone number looks like when your call is getting relayed over 3 military satellites but I am sure it doesn’t come up with my name and home number. So screw it for now.

Well our connection just dropped out again for like the 45^th time tonight. Off to troubleshoot the wonderful world of SHF.

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Thailand

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:15:59 +0200

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Arrived

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:30:56 +0200

Well we fmade it to our final destination and boy howdy let me tell you how beautiful it is to wake up in a smog filled sky surrounded by burning oil platforms. It took a little over a month to get here and now we will be cruising at 2 knots around these platforms for the next 5 months. So this is what fighting for freedom feels like? Amer-I-Can!

Earlier this week I passed my DC test so I am officially sanctioned to fight fires and what not. It’s not really a qualification I want because it means they will most definitely put me on some sort of fire fighting squad which I am not too keen on. Currently my job is stretcher bearer which is basically the most kick ass job you could have for General Quarters. I dispatch to a scene after a casualty is called and then provide first aid if it hasn’t already been provided (which it usually has) and then transport the casualty back to the Battle Dress Station. It’s pretty great, especially compared to what a lot of other people have to do during GQ.

I am still on the mid shift and will be on it for a few more weeks until we get to our next port. I should be using this time to get ESWS signatures but I am mostly just in radio working or goofing off. Hopefully Langston will stay on me about it since we are on the same shift now. Today I am working some whack ass split shift where basically I worked last night then worked till 1500 today then slept for a few hours and now back at work till 0800 tomorrow morning. I know it’s glamorous and as an added bonus, I will look fresh as a daisy after this shift!

I found out that our port visit to Dubai is getting pushed back and we might end up being there on my birthday which would be pretty kick ass. I could definitely enjoy myself in Dubai for my birthday. I always wanted to visit while I was in Italy but never could get anyone to commit to it and it did not seem like a place that I would want to visit alone.

Not being able to spend money is really sucking. I just bought a ton of shirts this week that will probably not arrive until the end of the cruise the way our mail system is working and it’s the first money I have spent since deploying (with the exception of Thailand and that was mostly drinking money) and I am salivating over the iMacs that Apple just introduced yesterday. I can’t wait to get home and order one of the 21” iMacs and a Mac Mini for my media center. Money well saved and spent and even though I just bought a kindle and I love it, the new B&N Nook e-book reader looks amazing and since I must have all gadgets on the face of the earth (even if I have a perfectly good gadget that does the same thing) I will probably be ordering it when I get back.

After a month of being on board, I am no longer the new guy. We just flew in 8 new people today and are getting a few more over the next couple of days. I have started to make a few more acquaintances on board even though I never get out of radio and I am starting to get a little better known on the ship. For better or worse, we’ll have to see. This week I rebuilt the ships internal website which got me in the headlines for a few moments in time which is always nice. Previously the only time I had gotten attention was unwanted because rumors were running rampant that I was messing around with this married girl (Langston) from my division. Those of you who know me well are getting quite amused right now but I seriously got counseled on 3 different occasions about fraternization. It was retarded!

Well this is gonna be a long night. Time to fill my cup to the brim with the sludge that they call coffee.

PS – I just got pics of Thailand. Update coming as soon as I do some filtering =P

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Switch

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:28:33 +0200

Today is my last full day on day shift, tomorrow I start back on nights. It doesn’t really matter to me what shift I work cause 16 hours is 16 hours no matter how you slice it and when you never leave your workspace you don’t really know if its day or night anyway. The good thing about nights is that it is generally slower then days but in this part of the world there is a lot of exercises at night so it might be picking up a little bit. I like days because there is a lot of stuff going on and the time goes by pretty quick but doesn’t leave much time to do anything else. Nights will allow me time to work on my ESWS as well as some other in rate training.

Today is kind of a crazy day because we are switching all our communication services from one part of the world to another. It’s pretty stressful because nobody wants to drop out and it’s always difficult when trying to deal with multiple people in multiple places trying to get your services transferred over. Things are looking good now but that tends to change minute to minute.

I am supposed to take my Basic DC test today and I feel surprisingly confident and for me that usually means I will bomb it. I am usually so nervous about a test I can barely hold the pencil but usually end up doing ok and with this test I am not feeling anything so I guess I will know how I did in a couple hours. I really do hope that I pass it because if I do it eliminates like 7 PQS’s that I would normally have to do otherwise.

I need coffee this morning.

It’s been a little over a month since we took off and I haven’t done much other than work and sleep. I have a whole hard drive full of TV shows and movies and I haven’t really even touched them. I started watching a BBC show called Beautiful People this week which my best friend Jose introduced me and it’s LOL funny. I was cracking up watching it in my rack this week. I got through a couple episodes and have a couple more left of the 1^st season but other than that I haven’t watched anything. I have read a couple books and just started a new one but usually by the end of the workday my brain is so fried I don’t want to do anything that requires concentration. The one thing I really do miss is sports. We get nothing on board and I mean nothing. I have to read about everything which is a fine supplement if you see the game but it’s not the same as actually seeing the action. My Dolphins beat the J-E-T-S this week on MNF and I didn’t get to see even a highlight from it. Apparently we have the capability but we can’t seem to figure out how to get it working unless we are in port. It’s really making me crazy. No MLB playoffs, No NFL or NCAACF and missing most of the NBA season.

We just got the 10 week notice about our twice annual Physical Readiness Test. I have only worked out a handful of times since checking on board and when I ran a few days ago it felt like my heart was gonna explode! It’s a unique challenge trying to run on a treadmill on a ship that is rocking back and forth because half of the time you are running right up against the front bar and the rest of the time you are struggling to not fall off the back of it. I have 10 weeks to master the treadmill and get my ass in shape for the test. Not looking forward to it. Maybe my weight will start to move. I have been stuck on 174lbs the entire time I have been on the boat even though I have been eating less and less. It’s gotten to the point now that during most meals, I will pick at my food and have a few bites and that is it but no matter how little I eat my weight does not move.

Well I am getting the shakes from lack of caffeine so I need to get my morning fix.

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Mad at the World

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:54:18 +0200

I know I should start by updating what happened in Thailand and I will but have you ever had a regular day where nothing bad happened but you just get unexplainably angry about nothing? I am so mad right now and feel like breaking shit but I don’t have any real reason to be. I have been manic the last couple days, I hope it passes. I don’t want to freak out on somebody for no reason and I feel like I am at that point. I need some nice soothing music.

Maybe I am feeling this way because I haven’t written in over 10 days and I sort of use this as therapy. Anyway, Thailand was fun and I really enjoyed my time there but it was exhausting and took me like 5 days just to recover because as soon as we pulled out they started working us like dogs. I haven’t had a minute to catch my breath over the last week. If it’s not drills, then it’s more indoc or mountains of messages that have to go out and of course there is always Needle Gunning and sanding the deck and priming it and then painting it but about Thailand….

Thailand is sort of what I imagine Sodom and Gommorah to be like. Pretty much anything you want, and things you didn’t know you wanted can be yours. The place basically boils down to 3 things: Hookers, Alcohol and Haggling. Those are specific to Navy guys. My liberty buddy turned out to be really good. We had a good time and he wasn’t trying to pick up hookers on every corner which was cool. We went out during the day and sightsaw and shopped and then we went out at night and got fucked up but always were responsible enough to be back before we got in trouble.

The shopping in Thailand is crazy and it turns out just wasn’t for me. I really can’t stand haggling and you can’t buy something in Phuket unless you haggle. All the street vendors are from Nepal and they are all hocking counterfeit shit and they jack the prices up 3x what they should be cause they want to haggle. So I ended up buying very little even though it is cheap there. I bought a bag and a pair of board shorts which I needed. I didn’t waste my time with other stuff that I didn’t really need. My liberty buddy on the other hand LOVES to haggle. He thrives off it and it was like watching a master at work. He walked away with a lot of nice stuff on the cheap.

The weather was terrible the entire time. It rained buckets both days we had liberty but it was ok because I didn’t think the beach was that nice anyway. The highlights for me were the elephant riding, the Thai massage I got and of course having a drink or two. I was in desperate need of a massage, my back and this ship and my rack are apparently bitter enemies. Every day that I wake up it feels like I got beat up the night before, so we scoped out a massage place that didn’t look like a front for a sex parlor (which most of them do) and ended up in one down some alley which was a little sketchy but turned out to be ok. The little girl who worked on me was throwing me around like I was a rag doll. She was twisting my body into positions I never knew existed. An hour and 5 whole dollars later I felt like a new man.

I have found out that having duty the day before you pull out is just about the worst thing ever because when you are an IT on board a ship, you have 24 hours of watch on your duty day and you can’t leave your space. Now, that is of course bad enough but when you take that and then tack on another 12 hours of watch for the following work day it really turns you into something special. People saw a whole new side of me that day and I don’t think they are eager to see it again. I am not a very cheery person after being up and pestered for 36 straight hours.

I feel like I have been making some good progress over the last couple days with my qualifications and what not but of course the more I do the more stuff gets assigned to me so it’s a win-lose sort of situation. Today I had my first experience with the Pulper. It’s a machine down in the trash room that takes all our paper that can’t just be thrown away and turns it into pulp. It smells like a paper mill down there and naturally only the IT’s can run the machine so I got voluntold to head up that evolution today. I ended up doing about 40 bags worth of paper and the machine has a tendency to spit back at you so I am covered in pulp today. It’s quite a fetching look.

Today we got issued our Chemical, Biological and Radiological gear which should give you an idea of where we are and where we are headed. The brief that they give you before issuing your gear scares the shit out you and makes you pray to God that you never ever have to use that mask and suit for real.

Well I guess that’s about all I got for now. I am still pissed for no particular reason. I think maybe I will go run and hopefully work some of this out.

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Facebook Down

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:35:03 +0200

Well we just arrived in Thailand this morning and I don’t know if by coincidence or not but our connection to Facebook has been severed. I am especially distraught because today I have to work and don’t get to leave the space for 24 hours. 24 hours of work without checking Facebook might drive me insane. Actually 24 straight hours of work will probably send me over the edge no matter what distractions I have.

Our Thailand port brief was quite enlightening. There are many many things to do here and most of them are illegal for the military. Not that it will stop some people. I think there must have been 5 slides dealing with prostitution, 3 regarding the availability of drugs and of course one all about Transvestites. (also called ladyboys and katoey) There were also tidbits about not drinking the water, watching your drinks and how to get around the island. It looks like the dollar still goes a long way here. The rate is about 33 baht for 1 dollar. Maybe I will buy a nice vacation house while I am here.

Tomorrow morning I will get to leave the ship with my liberty buddy, head out to see what Thailand has to offer and see if all the stories are true. I don’t really know what to expect with my liberty buddy because I have never hung out with him off the ship so it should be interesting all around. The plan is to get off the ship around 0900 or so and then take a small craft from the ship to the pier and then head to the hotel to check in and drop our stuff off. We only picked one tour for the 2 days and that is elephant riding which we are set to do tomorrow afternoon. It’s like a 45 minute ride into the rainforest and then some sort of show at the end. I had to do it, I mean how many times in your life can you say you got to ride elephants in Thailand?

After the tour, I think it will pretty much just be drinking and partying the rest of the night. We have nothing planned for Tuesday but I would like to hit up the mall and just cruise around the beach. One thing that is on the top of my list is a massage and just general spa treatment. My body is getting killed on board and my back feels like its 1000 years old. If I get a great massage it will be the highlight of my port visit.

This week is going to be tough. Here is my schedule

Today – 24 Hours of Watch

Monday – Party Party Party

Tuesday – More Partying

Wednesday – 24 Hours of Watch

Thursday – Full day of work after 24 hours of watch

After we leave Thailand we are planning to be out to sea for 40+ days straight with no port visits. 25 days with 1 semi-port visit has been a challenge so I can only imagine what this next stretch will be like. Well I guess I can start thinking about that on Thursday. Until then, Thai me up, Thai me down!

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XO comes before CO

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:27:51 +0200

So I just unintentionally made a huge ass of myself. I came down for lunch from DC Indoc and was asked to go to the Chiefs Mess and see Senior Chief. He handed me a message and said find the CO and XO. It was a message that had to be looked at and signed before it could be sent out. I searched for the XO first. I checked her stateroom, the ward room all of officer country and I could not find her so I headed to the bridge. I got up there and you could feel the stress lingering in the air because of where we currently are (it’s Top Secret). I was not trying to stick around longer then I had to. The CO was standing right in front of me so after a few minutes I said excuse me sir and he turned around and gave me a death stare and then took the message and looked it over and signed it. As soon as he did I knew I was screwed because the XO should have looked and signed first. I left the bridge knowing exactly what I would be told that I would have to do.

I came down and was told to go find the XO and get her chops even though the CO had already signed. At best it was going to be an uncomfortable situation. I ran back up to the bridge but neither the CO or XO was up there so I headed back down and as luck would have it I ran smack dab into the XO. I gave her the message and she asked what it was. I hadn’t looked at the message or been given any instructions as to what it contained. So I told the truth. She was not thrilled with my answer. She gave me the message back and told me to send my division officer up with the message and an explanation of what the message contained.

My division officer is a woman who looks like she is 12 and I felt bad breaking the news to her. She shook it off but I know it’s probably not going to be a very pleasant conversation for her.

So I learned a few valuable lessons today:

1) XO comes before CO

2) Ask questions about what the hell you are being asked to deliver

3) Read and understand all messages before heading off

Off to get some not very appetizing lunch and back to more fire fighting! Happy Saturday.

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Hose Team Training

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:09:41 +0200

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Hose Team Training.m4v (4810 KB)

This is some video I shot of my indoc class doing hose team training on the flight deck yesterday. The weather was insane, winds were blowing about 30 knots with driving rain and the seas were 8-10ft. The flight deck was actually secured but we kept right on training. It was pretty fun actually and more challenging then you might think, especially in that weather. The lead nozzelman in the video is Gundayo, he is an Operations Specialist (OS) and a pretty funny guy. He told me he wanted to be a marine but they told him he didn’t weigh enough (seriously!) so he joined the Navy.

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What we really do in the Navy

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:41:46 +0200

This ship loves it some topside preservation. Don’t let the officers fool you, they were just out there for the photo op.

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Swim Call

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:47:09 +0200

We’ve had one swim call since we got underway and I missed it. Looks like a fun time though.

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40 Days and 40 Nights

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:19:51 +0200

It’s been a crazy past couple of days. The weather has taken a serious turn for the worse. We have been in 15 foot+ seas for a couple days now and it’s really starting to take a toll on the crew. There are multiple typhoons in the area but we are doing our best to avoid them. Surprisingly I haven’t been sea sick, this kind of motion makes me really hungry though. My boss on the other hand is not handling the rough seas quite as well. Yesterday he had to go lay down in his rack during the middle of the day because it just was too much for him. No such relief for the peons. We are just a couple days out from Thailand and I got a liberty buddy. I don’t really know the guy but people say he is fun to hang out with so hopefully it goes well. We are going to ride some elephants and tour the city and have a few adult beverages. I also plan on getting some spa treatment and letting some little Thai girls walk on my back. We got a room at the Millennium resort in Patong Beach so I will be enjoying 2 full days on the island. I am really excited and looking forward to the visit especially since considering this morning I read that after Thailand we won’t be stopping until we reach Bahrain in mid November. 40 days straight out to sea is going to be pretty rough.

Yesterday I had Damage Control indoc which is a combination of classroom and real world scenarios in regards to fighting fires on board. The classroom part was ok, I kept myself awake and interested by taking mad notes during class. I must have written down every word DC3 was saying. Hopefully it works out for me because we have a test over the material and if I pass it, then it will allow me to bypass a whole bunch of other PQS and signatures and what not. In the afternoon we did some hands on training. We basically learned how to put on the fire fighting gear and go “on air” and “off air.” SCBA is a acronym from hell! It stands for Self Contained Breather Apparatus but it’s really a torture device disguised to look like an oxygen tank. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t have had it on for 4 hours while the ship was being tossed like a toy. Today my body feels like it got thrown down a flight of stairs. We have 2 more days of training but hopefully yesterday is the last time I will see SCBA’s for a while.

It’s definitely easier to meet people during the day and when you get out of radio. I met a couple new people who seem really nice and who I had seen around before but never talked to. I met a couple nice girls who are dating (each other) but I am still trying to make friends with a couple of the guys who I suspect are family.

Well time for quarters and then off to more damage control indoc. Hopefully it’s a little calmer today.

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Rusty

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:51:34 +0200

It’s a never ending battle out here against the rust. In just 2 weeks of being at sea we are already covered in rust on the outdoor spaces that our shop is in charge of. On Saturdays we have a pretty standard routine out here. We do a TSSE (General Quarters Drill simulating an attack on the ship) and then we have a 4 hour session of Topside Preservation which generally entails needle gunning all the rust and painting over it. I slept horrible last night and during our 2 hour GQ drill I was wishing and hoping it would rain and lo and behold when the time came it was raining!

Naturally the rain didn’t stop the XO from letting us head on out there and work. There is something surreal about standing on the weather decks sweeping water off the ship as it’s continuing to pour down. Nevertheless there I was with a broom in one hand and a green SOS pad in the other. I was ready! The rain eventually let up a little bit and it was actually nice being outside even if I was soaking in it. I scrubbed rust till my hands looked like the SOS pad and of course it didn’t make a bit of difference but this was mostly just busy work anyway, just a show for the brass. I spent the rest of the day down in radio doing this and that but feeling completely useless as usual. I actually did get a really good training session with Senior, now if I could just get some work (non busy) to apply it too.

I am getting to the point with my LPO that I can’t even look at him when he is talking to me. He is getting fired (demoted) for gross incompetence and it’s just too hard to take him seriously. For once in my navy career, a person is actually getting what they deserve instead of being promoted for being a horrible leader. Just goes to show what a kick ass senior chief we have.

Towards the end of our 17 hour day yesterday we were all pretty pissed and talking about ways to improve morale and one of the new IT1’s suggested we do something like Craigslist for the crew. I thought this was a great idea because of how segmented every one on board is. If people use it, it could be a great resource for finding games, movies, selling old stuff you don’t want, and most importantly for me finding a liberty buddy. So I took the idea and ran with it and quickly setup an interface and got it up and running. We showed it to senior chief and he said we needed some basic guidelines about appropriate behavior and moderation of the postings and so we did all that and he liked it and now he is going to take it to the CO for final approval. I hope he likes it and promotes it because I think it could be a really great asset to have on deployment.

Working on Sunday day here is like watching paint dry. There is like 8 people sitting in here and nothing is going on, but instead of giving people some time off we are just sitting here staring into space. At least I have my iPod. There is another steel beach picnic if the weather holds out. I heard we are having pulled pork and burgers! Speaking of the weather, it’s been pretty nice to this point but the last couple days things have been heading south and word is that we are headed in the general direction of a Typhoon near the Philippines. Even the saltiest of sailors on this boat say they don’t want any part of that; 30 feet seas, walking on the walls, throwing up into bags tied to your belt. Such a glamorous life!

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Guam-ania

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:31:20 +0200

My first navy port visit was pretty ridonkulous. First let me reiterate that I absolutely hate the liberty policy and buddy program that is in place. I know its in place to keep us safe and blah blah blah but I really like doing stuff on my own and don’t like being paired up with people that I don’t necessarily like or have things in common with. That being said, I did end up having a lot of fun with the people that I went out with last night. I ended up going out with this girl (Langston) who I really like and get along with but she has a reputation on board for being the kind of person who inevitably ends up in trouble every single time we hit a port, and after last night I can see how that always happens.. Knowing this, I really was hesitant about going out with her but I didn’t have anybody else to go out with and I would have likely gotten stuck on the boat. So myself, Shaddock, Nikki & Langston took off around 1500 for the bus. We first went to the exchange and got some uniform stuff and what not, then we got in the Taxi and headed downtown.

We had intended to just get something to eat and come back but you know what they say about the best laid plans. So we all decided we wanted steak which was great for me because I could eat steak everyday, so we took a look around and decided on Outback. We got there at 1630 but they didn’t open till 1700 so we went around the corner and got a 6 pack and this is where I should have realized that we were not getting some food and coming right back. Outback was amazing! I had steak and lobster and a few beers and a bloody mary (which I could use right now) and a couple shots of Jameson. Needless to say I was well on my way by the time we left.

After Outback we really didn’t have much of a plan, we briefly contemplated going back but that quickly got voted down in favor of more drinking. We walked around downtown and ended up at the Hard Rock and had some Long Islands and shots of Tequila. This is where things started to really fall apart. We finished up there and went to a karaoke bar. Keep in mind we had to be back on the ship by midnight which means that we had to get in a whole night of partying in about 5 hours. So it’s like 1900 and we head into this karaoke bar. I don’t know how, but we ended up in this private room with our own Karaoke machine and a stripper pole in the middle of the room. Everything is kind of hazy here because I had been up for like 40 hours straight plus the drinking and what not. I’m pretty sure I passed out on the couch and got molested by Langston for a while. I hear it was pretty good.

When they finally got me awake we headed down through the Hard Rock hotel and we came out by the pool. Why do drunk people always end up near a pool? Langston herself had explicitly told her that she was not to have Tequila because when she has it, her clothes come off. Within the blink of an eye, her clothes were off and she and Shaddock were in the pool. I don’t think I fully comprehended what was happening because if I had I probably would have been freaking out a little since she was skinny dipping in a pool at a hotel we weren’t staying at, at like 7 at night. Anyway, we made it out of there without the cops being called or spotted hopefully.

I am pretty sure at this point we flagged down a cab and headed back to the ship. It was $80 to get from the base to downtown and $70 to get back. I couldn’t believe it, thank God there were 4 of us splitting it. The cab ride home was quite fun, I was chatting up the cab driver and Shaddock was in the back seat with the door cracked open throwing up the whole way back. It was pretty awesome.

How am I feeling today? I kind of feel like I am in a cloud and even though we are moored at the Pier it feels like we are moving. I am kind of upset that we can not get off the boat today. It’s not my duty day and everybody else in my duty section could go to the Navy exchange but that is not applying to Radio. Oh well! We are getting back underway this afternoon and then it’s off to Thailand. That port visit is gonna make this one seem tame. I gotta find new liberty buddies though because if I went out with these people I would most certainly be liberty risk if not arrested.

8 hours left till I can sleep!

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The Buddy System doesn't work (for me)

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:18:25 +0200

1450 – Hating life right now because I got up for this smash and crash drill and it turns out I am not even needed. They are not doing causalities. How can you have a helo accident and no casualties? Oh well, I am sure this 5 hours of sleep will do me just fine tonight. If not maybe I can grab a few hours behind the SHF rack. I tried that little cubby out last night and it was nice and toasty. It probably radiated all over me and gave me cancer but at least it kept me warm.

2155 – It’s evening prayer and Scarface is playing on the TV. That’s quite a dichotomy. So we are a couple days out of Guam and I will have off both days (day and a half) that we will be there. It’s cool, but a trade off because my section will have to work 2 out of 4 days in Thailand while everybody else works only one day. I would rather have more time in Thailand then Guam but regardless I may not even get off the damn boat because I don’t have a liberty buddy yet.

I think I have said before that it’s hard to meet people when you work in Radio cause you rarely leave the space and even harder on Mids because even when you do get out, there isn’t anybody else out there so because of these factors and the fact that I generally don’t like people, I haven’t met anybody. Because of this, I haven’t lined up a liberty buddy. For those not in the know, when in a foreign port you must leave and come back with a liberty buddy. You can meet up with other people once you get off but you must cross the quarterdeck in both directions with the same person. If you don’t it is bad news and you will certainly be liberty risked for a while which means no or limited liberty in the next number of ports. If you have a really good friend on board then the buddy system is no big deal but if you don’t know anybody it can prove to be problematic. Personally I am a grown ass man and have done things alone my whole life so this whole idea seems pretty juvenile to me, and judging from the stories I hear it doesn’t do much to keep people out of trouble. I have been told not to worry because I will find someone to go out with, but what I want to do may not (probably won’t) be the same thing as another random person I get paired up with wants to do. People say there is nothing to do on Guam except go to strip clubs (I know you can’t wait to come here Ben) and drink. While I am more then fine with drinking, I don’t want to spend 12 hours in a strip club. I hope I can find someone who wants to go to the Nex, Mall, Beach and Drink. Not necessarily in that order!

2228 – I just read it’s the first day of fall. I can see the leaves changing from here. Ha!

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The Buddy System doesn't work (for me)

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:08:18 +0200

2228 – I just read it’s the first day of fall. I can see the leaves changing from here. Ha!

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You Lie!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:49:15 +0200

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Rough Waters

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:48:18 +0200

0640 - Nothing really going on tonight except we are transiting some pretty rough waters tonight and hopefully I will sleep ok and not fall out of my rack. I have to be up in 4 hours for stretcher bearer training and then a smash and crash drill which is a scenario where a helicopter crashes on our flight deck. I would be totally stoked about it but I know I will be bitter cause of the lack of sleep and then of course right after the drill come right back to watch.

I got quite the beard happening today. To raise funds for the recreation department we are allowed to pay $5 and not have to shave till we get to Guam. It’s pretty sweet. I hope they do it again between Guam and Thailand.

Well its time for morning quarters then off to get a few hours of oh so refreshing sleep.

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