Tomorrow is my last day of classes.  I have two.  In the morning, I plan on going up to the baseball field where  the Marines will be landing a couple of Super Cobras and a TH-57.  Hopefully I'll get there early enough to go for a ride. 

Today was the last day of ROTC.  The next time I put on my navy uniform it will be for commissioning.  We had our change of command ceremony today, and it was probably a record for the shortest one ever.  The one in the Spring is always a big fancy affair on the parade ground of the fort, complete with a pass in review.  But it was over in 32 minutes.  That's nice.

I was awarded some things at the ceremony today.  A medal from the National Defense Transportation Association.  I'm not sure what I did to get it, but there it is.  I got a letter of commendation and ribbon from the Commanding Officer of the Unit for last semester's work.  And, I think most importantly, I was given the Ensign Beth Bonn Award.

Ensign Bonn graduated from here in 2004, and her younger brother is in my class.  She went off to flight school and was killed last year in a crash along with several other people.  Her parents sponsored this award and this is the second year it has been given.

I hope no one was expecting a proper post.  Quite frequently I feel like there are things of note to record, but when I get the time to write something I never have the motivation to do so.... or I've forgotten what it was that I thought was so interesting. 

The purpose of this post is to ask you all for your help in something.

Back in May, when we were three days into our training cruise, a cadet in my class died.  We want to leave something at the school in his memory, but are having a tough time coming up with something that we feel is appropriate.  The leading idea was to take the outdoor basketball courts (which are seldom used) and make them into a roller hockey rink in his name, as there are many hockey players and Billy was an avid one, on the school's ice hockey team.  However, in talking with the various school authorities, it seems that building, placing, or renovating any part of the gym or its surroundings will probably not last as there are plans to expand and improve those facilities. 

Since we don't want to just get him a bench, and time is starting to run short, we need help coming up with ideas.  There are various stone markers on the campus for individuals who have died at sea or during school, but little is given on them but a name, and no one who is still here knows who they were, and there's little way to find out.  We don't want that to happen to him, either. 

If anyone has any thoughts, please leave a comment.

Time for a post, since I haven't in awhile.  Here's the rundown on what's gone on since the last.

- Sat for license 17 DEC- 21 DEC

- Went to Charlotte for the holidays 22 DEC

- Back to Connecticut  03 JAN

- Drove to Sub Base New London for dress white jacket for commissioning and graduation 4 JAN

- Returned to school 6 JAN

- 24.5 credits for my last semester.  Echo Company Commander (Regiment), Bravo Company Commander (NROTC Battalion), SGA Elections Director (SGA Cabinet) among other nonsense

- As of the moment I write this, there are 93 days, 8 hours, and 44 minutes and 20 seconds to graduation.  But who's counting?

-  I have finally recommenced construction of my battleship model in the new apartment. 

-  CAT!  Pictures behind cut.
.

The semester is nearly over, and it can't come soon enough.  It's been rough from the start, but as the license exams approach, the pressure has gotten pretty intense.  Last week was one of the most difficult I've yet had.

In order to be allowed to sit for license in three weeks, we all have to qualify.  This semester has been geared towards "seminar" which are a collection of  "classes" that basically beat us up in preparation for the qualifiers.  For the deck license, there are seven coast guard tests and so there are seven qualifiers.  Last week, I had five of them-Near Coastal, Chart plot, Deck Safety, Oceans, and Rules of the Road.  Near Coastal is basically terrestrial navigation and piloting, the chart plot is also a terrestrial navigation/piloting practical test, deck safety covers nautical trivia in everything from medical care provider/first aid, to what code you use to signal another ship using flags, oceans is celestial navigation and the "sailings" which are a great pain in the ass, but part of voyage planning the old-school way.  Both celestial and the sailings involve lots of math.  Rules of the Road is what we call the international colregs or Collision Avoidance Regulations.  Simply, it covers who has right-of-way and how to maneuver in as many situations as can be planned for and also lays out what kind of light and sound equipment vessels must carry, etc. 

All of this stuff has been coming to a head in the last few weeks of the semester and many people are struggling.  This is the semester that everyone is supposed to have nothing but seminar to worry about.  A lot of us, though, have many other classes and responsibilities.  ROTC certainly hasn't cut me a break, and in many areas I have more responsibility than I have ever had here.  In addition to all of that crap, I'm taking 25.5 credits hours this semester. 

Going into this last week I was pretty worried about making it through all of these tests.  But, somehow, even though the amount of sleep I got through the whole week was what I would like to get in a single night, things went better than well.  This is the first week all semester where I have not had a million things to focus on and so I was able to focus on this license stuff.  All semester long my grades on the Rules of the Road practice tests and even the first three comprehensive ones have been in the 80's, which is normally fine, except that to pass the qualifiers you gotta get a 90.  So, some of the professors were betting that I wasn't going to make it. 

This week, I rocked their world.  On all but two of those tests, I got 100.  I passed all of them.  Now, there are only three more tests left between me and the coast guard exams.  On Monday, I will take Nav general, which is a smorgasbord of navigation and can include anything previously tested but also nautical astronomy (which is the theory behind the practice of celestial navigation), among other things like GPS, ECDIS, LORAN, and Radar operation and theory and meteorology.  Also on Monday, I will take the final Rules of the Road test.  Tuesday will see the last of the Deck General tests, which is all of the other trivia like rigging, maintenance, etc.  I can't wait until it's over. 

Also on Monday, I will have my final exam in the simulator.  The "Kobayashi Maru," as it were.

This week was a good one from the momentum, but by the time I got out of the Oceans exam on Thursday night I was shot.  The test was three hours long and I was in there for every minute of those three hours, crunching numbers and plotting my running fixes non-stop.  It was exhausting.

Wednesday I fly to Miami for a second interview with Celebrity Cruise lines.  Should be a nice break. 

Saw "Enchanted" today.  It was surprisingly good. 

Wow.  Life is crazy.

The drill meet happened back on Oct 27.  It was one of the longer days of my life, but in the end it all went fine.  There was definitely an "oh shit" hour or so in the morning when it appeared as though all was lost.  Some of these high school unit commanders take this stuff very very seriously.  Way too seriously.  Like band parents on crack. 

Now I just have to finish all the reports for the event and the recommendations for next year.  That's almost as much fun as the planning.

License is a big pain in the ass.  I haven't had a lot of time to devote to studying for it, so I've walked into four tests a week this whole semester  cold.  I've managed to pull passing grades in all, but they're not A's, that's for sure.  Last week started the qualifiers for license, so they really count now.  This week I'll have at least two more.  The big battery of them will happen the week after Thanksgiving. 

The Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball that I am working on is progressing.  Tomorrow I will visit the caterers one last time to finalize the menu and other details.  Tickets are selling-albeit slowly.  All of the various favors (challenge coins, beer steins) have arrived and so hopefully all that remains is rehearsing the ceremony a couple of times and then it's open bar! 

My computer died last week.  It is beyond resurrecting, so I am now the proud owner of a Mac Pro dual core tower.  It is pretty nice.  I am currently writing this in Windows XP (because I am working on ROTC stuff and I needed photoshop which I don't have for OS X yet.) since this machine will run both... at the same time.  Well, it will once I get Parallels.  Right now I have to reboot to switch, but still, I can use either.

In the second week of October there was a job fair here.  I met with several companies, but the one with which I cadet-shipped showed a big interest in me a few classmates.  I had an interview and feel confident that I am at the top of the pile for candidates from the this school.  When I walked up to their table, one of the RDOs, LCDR McCarthy was talking to the recruiter who was a cadet here a few years ago.  Just as I walked up the recruiter had asked McCarthy to name one cadet for him that was the one they should take.  As I walked up he turned and said, "There he is right here."  In addition to that, the second mate from the ship I was on was there recruiting for a different company and she went over and put in a good word for me, too.  The company, Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc is a good one that pays well and that is building new ships for the foreseeable future.  All of which bode well for someone wishing to move up the ranks.  If they were to offer me a job, I would take it and leave grad school here to my time off, which ought to allow me to complete it fairly quickly.  So, we shall see. 

For right now, I just have to pass license.

Current Location: my room
Current Mood: very very very tired
Current Music: tobacco island

Boredom has led me to post.  Really, there are about ten other things I should be doing right now, but whatever.  List!

I should be going over my license application. 

I should be preparing my room for the usual Wednesday morning room inspection festivities (I do the inspecting these days, so it's more to set the example). 

I should be studying for seminar! 

I should be going over the plans for ROTC tomorrow for Ball planning. 

I should be going over my brief for the CO for the JROTC Drill Meet and plans.

I should be sleeping (I've been up since 0500 for PT and my eyes are bloodshot)!

Instead, I will tell you of my latest foray into the world of the elite. 

Last Saturday (Oct 6) I went to the Waldorf Astoria for the 63rd Annual Columbus Citizens Foundation Gala.  This is serious fancy, folks.  For a mere $750 per person you and your family can enjoy the Waldorf at its best, in its biggest party of the year, every year. 

But, what fun is a party without a raffle?  Buy your tickets!  $1000 each!  What might you win?  A brand spanking new Maserati.  My ticket did not win, sadly. 

I'm beginning to really enjoy these fancy parties.  Dressing up once in awhile is fun. 



There's plenty more to talk about, but my eyes really are about to fall out of my head, so I will go to bed.  Perhaps there will be another post sometime.

Current Mood: bored

I am free.  I finished up restriction last Thursday night and was able to leave on Friday.  Naturally, I left school and went to Julie's. 

I saw Superbad.  Funny.  Painfully awkward at times.  Most of my friends from high school are in it....  sometimes occupying the same roles.

I worked on my boat.

I ate frosting and batter as Julie made cupcakes.  Then I ate cupcakes.

I went to the beach despite the drizzle and encountered a flock of parrots.  Internet research confirmed my suspicion that they are Quaker parrots.  Apparently, there is a colony that have lived in Brooklyn for some years now.  I wonder if they were taking a day at the beach? 

Pictures behind the cut of both the birds and the battleship.

And a new week begins...

Since the start of the year I've been constructing a battleship.  It's only a model.  On the weekends I leave my prison here at school and travel to the promised land of Julie's apartment in Stamford.  There, in a box and on a small table, is my project.  I move this promptly and take over the entire living room table for the duration.  Of course, it's at the point where it's not too far from completion that I decided to document it, so I have no beginning photos.  Yesterday, though, I decided to take some so I could share my precious with the world.

As you can see, it's quite large at nearly three feet long.  All of the shiny brass parts that you see are either photo-etched aftermarket parts or they are made from scratch.  Some are a little of both.  I have done a decent amount of research into the ship (the USS North Carolina) and have created it as she would have appeared between Sept 1944 and June 1945. 


The superstructure still requires paint and most of the deck fittings have yet to be installed.  The paint scheme is Measure 32/18d.  This is a high contrast camouflage.  Clearly, it is not meant to make the ship invisible.  That would be dumb.  Naval camouflage of the day was meant to make a ship difficult to target, since our foes did not use radar for the bulk of the war.  This particular pattern was an anti-submarine scheme.  Submarine torpedoes were all fired by eye, basically.  Information such as range, bearing, course, and speed were estimated by the man at the periscope.  If you could confuse him as to type of ship, direction of travel, and speed then there was little hope of a hit. 

Anyway.  Not that any of you care about my damned hobbies.  I'm going to mount the ship in water when it's done.  By water, I mean clear resin that I am going to make look like water.  I could have built the ship as a waterline model, meaning that sitting on a table, only the part that you would see if the ship were really floating would be there.  In the real ocean, though, you can see the bottom of a ship through the water.... so I'm crazy and want to see the bottom through the water.

Halfway through summer school. 

Current Location: da boogie down bronx
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Steppenwolf-Magic Carpet Ride

After getting out of the English Channel we got hit by a gale for a couple
of days. It was right on the nose and respectably strong, slowing the
ship down to a crawl-for a number of reasons. At the rate we were going,
our ETA for Ambrose light at NY harbor was late in the day on the 17th.
We're due in on the 13th. Needless to say there were a lot of unhappy
people on board at the prospect of being even a few hours late, much less
the middle of the following week.

The weather abated and we kicked it up to 12 nozzles (of the 21 we have)
to make 17 knots. We've made up the lost time and are now making a
liesurely 15.6. We'll be home on time.

I just had my final exams this morning, and I think things went just fine..
We'll see soon enough, I suppose.

We're making what feels like a very slow 15 knots towards home right now.
I haven't looked at the chart today, so the best I can give you is a lat
and long for a present position 57* 1.137' N by 007* 31.662'E. I'd
imagine we're at the top of the North Sea, working our way down towards
the English Channel where we'll turn west once we're clear of Land's End
and the Scilly Isles. From there we'll steer a great cirlce course to the
Grand Banks and then rhumbline the rest of the way in towards the south
shore of Long Island before making Ambrose light on the very early morning
of the 13th.

The great circle course only goes as far as it does because of the ice
conditions around the labrador coast and the area of the grand banks this
year. The ice is further south this year than it has been in some time,
so rather than pull a Titanic, we're going to add a few extra miles to the
trip. Our hull is not reinforced for ice.

In an hour I have my third of four Qualifiers or "Q's". This one is on
firefighting and the equipment we have on board for dealing with it. I
don't imagine it will take too long, maybe an hour at the most.

We have some four thousand miles to go, that's quite a lot of ocean.
We're all counting down the days until we're back at Ft. Schuyler.

Gotta clean for room inspection now