Nathan, Tuppence a Thought

Day 171 - Great Kid! Don't Get Cocky!

2010-07-22T00:45:00.002-04:00

View Post

Day 170 - She's fast enough for you old man. What's the cargo?

2010-07-20T18:37:00.002-04:00

View Post

Day 169 - Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur.

2010-07-20T01:39:00.001-04:00

View Post

Day 168 - She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts kid

2010-07-19T00:10:00.000-04:00

View Post

Day 162 - Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship, not excuses.

2010-07-16T23:53:00.000-04:00

View Post

Day 161 - Return of the Jedi

2010-07-15T21:15:00.001-04:00

Day 161 - Return of the Jedi

Day 51 - He Is Most Displeased With Your Apparent Lack of Progress

2010-03-24T14:11:00.001-04:00

View

Day 50 - Never Tell Me The Odds

2010-03-22T14:40:00.001-04:00

View Post

Day 49 - I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing

2010-03-21T14:01:00.001-04:00

View Post

Day 43 - Mind what you have learned. Save you it can.

2010-03-15T15:12:00.001-04:00

View Post

Day 35 - ...Dantooine. They're on Dantooine.

2010-03-07T14:59:00.002-05:00

View Post

Day 31 - Hold your fire. There's no life forms.

2010-03-03T14:34:00.002-05:00

View Post

Day Twenty Four - We'll Have to Destroy Them Ship by Ship

2010-02-24T13:41:00.002-05:00

Day 24

Day Twenty One - Don't you call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!

2010-02-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

Not posting full content on this blog anymore

Day Eighteen - Let the Wookie Win

2010-02-18T23:11:00.001-05:00

83 Pieces - 10.03%

  In this case, I am C-3PO and the USS Nevada is Chewbacca and I have come to the conclusion that even when I am on shift work and have my mornings relatively free, I will probably still not be able to find time to work on this stupid thing twice a week. I don't know why I would have thought that it would be different, working to get this boat out of the yards is pretty arduous. I have very little room to complain though, if any at all. There are guys who have suffered through the whole refueling and have been working this hard if not harder the whole time. So, while it is a bit unfortunate that I can't work on the Falcon as much as I had hoped, at least these days I'm doing more at work to give me a sense of accomplishment and progress.
  As for today's work on the Falcon, things went pretty well. It was my lightest day yet at 83 pieces and only 4 pages of the manual. If you look at today's picture and the last one, you won't see too much difference, but it is there. I had some unsettling thoughts though, as I was working today. The main one is a reoccurring theme of this project, and that is fear of losing a piece! As I rummaged through boxes and bags today looking for pieces that didn't want to be found, in my minds eye all I could see was a huge puzzle of the Falcon with one missing piece. Even though with LEGO's it is different than a puzzle in the fact that if you are missing a piece it probably won't be noticeable, I still worry because if it comes down to the end and I had to skip a piece, I will always know. Luckily, today I averted disaster once again and found all the pieces I was looking for, but I know that the day will come when I spend my whole entire half hour devoted to finding one piece.
  The last thing that I want to bring up is a question. I have set out my rules for this adventure, and while I don't mind missing one of the two days a week, I have a very hard time justifying working for more than 30 minutes at a time. For instance, last week I only worked on it for one day, but that day I could have easily spent an hour catching up for the time lost earlier. So, the question that I pose is, should I break my 30 minute rule to make up for my broken twice a week rule?

Current Progress

Day Fourteen - Stay on Target

2010-02-15T02:15:00.002-05:00

110 Pieces - 8.44%

Well it is Sunday night of week two and I had only worked on the Falcon once so far. This week was insane in the realm of extra time. We had a super important inspection in the propulsion plant to determine whether or not we could go critical in the near future for the first time, and all of the studying and drills and everything that goes with all of that really got in the way of the rest of my life. We passed the inspection which is awesome, but the Falcon suffered. In order to not break the rules, I spent half an hour on it tonight.
The work was really tough though. I got a lot of pieces placed, only because most a lot of the steps had tons of really small pieces. There were two steps however that had big pieces that I couldn't find. Specifically I looked for about 10 minuted for an 8x2 flat black brick of which there are 8 in the entire set. The one that I was looking for was number 8 of 8. Finally I found it, only to turn the page to a step that needed 2 bricks of which there are 4 in the entire set, and you guessed it, I needed numbers 3 and 4. So I spent another 5 minutes trying to find them. Finally I got them, but when I did it was time to end. Overall it was a good day of work on the Falcon, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some more done.

Current Progres

Day Five - Into the Garbage Chute Flyboy

2010-02-05T14:21:00.001-05:00

106 Pieces - 6.31%

Well, this week has been pretty unspectacular to say the least. I have been at a school off the boat for the week, but despite that fact, I have still been required to come in every day to study for this big inspection that we have coming up. Not a big deal, but it does at a lot of extra stress to my day, especially with people coming in from out of town to visit for the weekend. Thankfully though, I had a little bit of time to relax and work on the old Falcon for a bit today. I was actually quite pleased that it had the desired effect. I let my brain kinda go offline and get lost in the menial task of finding pieces and putting them together. It was very relaxing. The model still doesn't really look like anything, but hopefully within the next two or three times I work on it, things will start to come together.
Following the instructions is getting to be a little difficult though. I thought that I was being very meticulous today, but when I went back to review the pieces I had placed, I found that I had left out a whole step. The particular step that I missed wasn't a big deal, but it showed me that I have to be more vigilant with these things. The last thing that I want is to have pieces left over when this thing is done that I haven't accounted for. Usually, with most LEGO sets there are some extra pieces in the end, but I don't want to have any doubt when I finish this one that those extras are anything but.
Well that is it for today, I don't think that I will get any more work done this weekend since I have maxed out my time for today and Morgan and Patty are here and have big plans for us in Seattle tomorrow.

Current Progress

What Butters thinks of my project

Day Two - That's No Moon

2010-02-02T13:26:00.002-05:00

112 Pieces - 4.28%

  Today I was once again kinda shocked at how many pieces there are in this whole set. I remembered when I was a kid I had this huge box full of LEGO's in my room that was the cumulation of years of birthdays and christmases totaling dozens of individual sets. This set might be able to fill up that whole box. The other thing that gets me about this set is how many tiny pieces there are. I have at least 10 bags that are stuffed full of pieces smaller than a fingernail. It is pretty intense.
  So today to make sure that I didn't go over my 30 minute allotment, I put on an episode of Malcolm in the Middle when I started, then when it was done, I finished the step I was on, took pictures and stepped away. I think that is a good way of doing it, because if I didn't have a way of measuring time that was in my face, I really think that I could get lost in this thing for hours at a time with no problem.
  All in all a good day so far. Off to work.

Today's Progress

My Workbench

My Three Parts Storage Locations

Day One - A New Hope

2010-02-02T13:25:00.001-05:00

110 Pieces - 2.12%

  In the beginning there was frustration. My job is not fun and lately I have been getting very little satisfaction out of it, so in response to that I decided to fulfill a dream that I have had for the past few years. That dream was the construction of Lego Set 10179 - Star Wars Collectors Edition Millennium Falcon. At 5195 pieces, this is the largest set (by # of pieces) that Lego makes. For the past few years I have been wanting to get it, but the price tag has deterred me. I won't post it here for humilities sake, but if you want to find out, I'm sure that you can.
  Today it arrived in the mail though, and I got to work. I will be the first to tell you, it was a bit intimidating. The box weighed about 30lbs, and when I opened it, the shear number of bricks were unimaginable. The instruction booklet on how to put it together is spiral bound and weighs a few pounds itself. I got to work though and made a bit of progress.
  The purpose of this blog is not to show off my cool Lego set or anything like that, it is a way for me to measure my progress towards the goal I have set of constructing this set in 2010. The whole reason that I got it was to feel that I was making progress at something and have tangible proof. This blog will be a record of that tangible proof. Each day that I work on the set, I will post pictures of the progress, a piece count for the day, a percentage complete, and thoughts on how the work is going or how my life is going. It's going to be interesting. I have never really blogged with a purpose, so it should be fun.
  As a side note, if you want to know why the Blog is called "My Death Star" when I am building the Millennium Falcon, it's because of a quote from the movie Fan Boys, "Greatest deed Luke Skywalker ever did was take down the Death Star, right? As far as I'm concerned, that's what everybody needs. You need that one bad-ass thing that lets you live on forever, you know." I'm not saying putting this thing together will be the greatest thing I ever do, or even come close to it, but it will be a big accomplishment.

The Rules

Max of 30 minutes a day

At least twice a week when not underway

Done by 2011

Side Blog

2010-02-01T21:15:00.002-05:00

A little side project if you want to follow it.

http://mydeathstar.blogspot.com/

12/12 I am officially qualified to stand

2009-12-13T16:31:00.001-05:00

12/12 I am officially qualified to stand Engineering Officer of the Watch, supervising all activities of a Nuclear Propulision Plant on a Submarine at Sea and it only took a month and a half! Now I can chill out for the rest of this patrol and come back home having successfully completed everything I was sent out here to do.
rom: voelkenc@kentucky-gold.navy.mil
natevoelker.justnathan@blogger.com

12/12

I am officially qualified to stand Engineering Officer of the Watch, supervising all activities of a Nuclear Propulision Plant on a Submarine at Sea and it only took a month and a half! Now I can chill out for the rest of this patrol and come back home having successfully completed everything I was sent out here to do.

Cheers,
Nathan

12/2

2009-12-03T02:56:00.001-05:00

Here are my top ten reasons why being on land in Washington is better than being underwater anywhere.

10) I can't see the sun either way, but at least on land there is fresh air

11/27

2009-12-01T04:09:00.001-05:00

Hello All,
Yesterday was thanksgiving, and for the most part it wasn't completely terrible. I got some rest, and had a pretty decent dinner. The cooks brought on some real Turkeys in Hawaii, and cooked them up for us. They also made some delicious mashed potatoes and gravy. The only part of the meal that was really lacking, was the stuffing. This is unfortunate because, for those of you who know, stuffing is my favorite part of the meal. I'll spot them the stuffing though, since everything else was good. They also had Egg Nog, of which I had 3 full glasses, and felt extremely sick afterwards

Thursday 4NOV

2009-11-24T13:59:00.002-05:00

Hello Friends and Family!
Today was day eleven of X underwater and I had a little time so I thought I would give an update. Unfortunately because of the way email works, the update will not post for probably 3-4 days after I write this. Oh well though right?
Things are going alright here, the day to day can get pretty mundane. I will often find myself doing things though and I will think, I bet Max, Jackson, or Kaden would get a kick out of this. Like looking at Bravo contacts out of the periscope (that is what we call birds). Today was an especially wavy day. We were at periscope depth for about 15 hours and the seas were rockin and rolling. It was pretty crazy, as you walked from one point of the boat to another it was commonplace to see people walking with their bodies tilted 15-20 degrees one way, and then a few seconds later the other. It was pretty good for sleeping though. It gives new meaning to being rocked in the cradle of the deep.
Hopefully all is well with everyone out there. My email address is voelkenc@kentucky-gold.navy.mil and I will be here all week, and longer, so feel free to write.

Cheers,
Nathan

Sailor Mail

2009-11-24T13:59:00.001-05:00

If anyone wants to email me while I am underway, the address is as follows.

voelkenc@kentucky-gold.navy.mil

My plan is to post some things here as well when I get time. Thanks in advance for the support.

-Nathan

11/18

2009-11-19T22:04:00.001-05:00

Hello Again Friends and Family,
Just thought since I had a bit of time I would write a little more to you all about life on the boat. Things are going well. We turned around in Pearl Harbor a couple days ago and get to do it again tomorrow. Let me tell you something about Hawaii. I want to go to there! It is so beautiful, and being within the state boundaries but in no way shape or form able to go ashore was torture! It was sunny outside, people were running, everything was just great. And I got to witness it all through a periscope! Lame Someday I'll be cool and be able to actually go to Hawaii, but tomorrow isn't that day.
Everything else is going well, quals are progressing at a rate that I am comfortable with. With any luck I'll be qualified with time to spare so that I can actually stand some watches by myself. To those of you who have no idea of what I am talking about I appologize for any confusion about what it is I actually do on board the submarine. Ask Amanda, she knows. (That is a joke by the way, she doesn't really know what I do). I would also like to thank everyone who has sent emails, no matter how short or long, it is very much appreciated. Being able to communicate with the outside makes living in a space 560' long seem mare bearable.
Right now we have a film crew on board taping for a show called mighty ships. I guess it is a discovery channel show about big ships or something like that. Anyways they are on board getting in everybodys way and making us do things over and over again to make it just right for the tv. I don't know when the episode is going to air, but there is a good chance that you might see me on it. I don't believe that I have any speaking lines, I don't really want them not have I sought to get them, but I am part of the crew and have definately been in front of the camera while they have been filming. Anyways, just something to look forward to. Hopefully this finds you all well. Take care.

Warm Regards,
Nathan

Thursday 4NOV

2009-11-16T16:49:00.003-05:00

Cheers,
Nathan

Sailor Mail

2009-11-16T16:49:00.001-05:00

If anyone wants to email me while I am underway, the address is as follows.

voelkenc@kentucky-gold.navy.mil

My plan is to post some things here as well when I get time. Thanks in advance for the support.

-Nathan

Sailor Mail

2009-11-03T12:11:00.001-05:00

If anyone wants to email me while I am underway, the address is as follows.

voelkenc@kentucky-gold.navy.mil

My plan is to post some things here as well when I get time. Thanks in advance for the support.

-Nathan

Front / Living Room / Office

2009-09-15T23:46:00.001-04:00

Here are some pictures of the house as we are getting it put together. We just finished the living room today and more rooms are falling into line as we work the details out. I'll put up some more as the week rolls on. The living room pictures start with the TV and work clockwise around the room, same for the Office.

Last Week in Review

2009-08-23T12:00:00.004-04:00

So this last week has been pretty sweet, from last Saturday up to today I've done a whole lot of pretty neat stuff. Last saturday I went and saw one of the sweetest bands of the last 40 years, The Doobie Brothers, in concert. Unfortunately their best member, Michael McDonald wasn't there, so it wasn't nearly as cool as it could have been, but they did their best and it was free, so I can't complain. To make the concert even more interesting, I tried fried Oreos for the first time. While they were tasty to an extent, I think that from now on I'll just stick with dipping them in milk instead of pancake batter and oil.

On monday we got out of class relatively early and on the way back to the hotel, one of the guys in my class asked if anyone wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail in CT with him that day. Turns out the trail in CT is like 50 miles. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I made the mistake of agreeing to go with him. Fortunately on the 2 hour drive out there we came to our senses and decided to only do half of it. So we started off in NY and walked in and out of CT for about 10 hours, over about 6 "mountains" and ended up hiking about 25 miles. Finally, at about 1100 we got off the trail and made our way back to Groton. We still might do the other 25 miles, but I'm still a little bit sore from the first 25 a week later. Also during the ten hours, I drank about 4 gallons of water and didn't pee once, thats about how hot and humid it was out there. Good way to burn calories and build muscle though I guess.

Speaking of calories. On friday night about seven of us went out to see The Inglorious Basterds, which was amazing despite what any old people might tell you, and then went out for dinner at a seafood restaurant in downtown Mystic. So we get to the place and sit down for dinner and 3/4 of the table goes crazy on the menu. We got 2 bottles of wine, one guy got two glasses of whiskey, 12 oysters, Spinach Artichoke Dip, and Fried Calamari... To start. Then everyone got their entree's which weren't cheep, and about half the table got dessert. It was a great dinner, we were there for about 4 hours and the food, conversation, and service were delightful. When all was said and done though there were only two of us who were not drunk, and as the bill came all of the drunk guys thought it would be fun to play credit card roulette. Credit card roulette is when everyone throws their card in a hat and the waitress draws one out and that guy pays. The bill was about $400, so the two sober guys were hesitant, but we threw our cards in. Now just because all of us could afford the dinner, doesn't mean we all weren't sweating a bit. When the waitress pulled out the card, she had two, so we decided she had to pull again, which made the tension even worse. On her second try she got it right and the other sober guy, who had probably the smallest individual bill, ended up taking the cake. Just so you know, credit card roulette is not fun, but it does make a fun night that much more interesting.

Andersons, Eat Your Heart Out (Sweet New Threads)

2009-08-14T11:57:00.002-04:00

Got my new Navy Camos this week, they are pretty sweet. Hopefully I'll actually wear them at some point.

New Haven, CT Pizza Rivalry

2009-08-08T23:50:00.002-04:00

So tonight my friend Alex and I drove down to New Haven to check out these two Pizza places that have had some kind of rivalry going on for the past like 50 years. On the way we stopped at an outlet mall to check some stuff out as well.

At the Outlet Mall we went to the Brooks Brothers store because I was thinking about getting some dress shoes. When we went in though, the staff was extrememly rude and treated me like I wasn't fit to shop in their store. Wrong move on their part. Just because I look like a beach bum today doesn't mean that when I do put on a suit I don't want to look good. So instead of buying the $300 shoes that I was looking at, I just left.

After that we moved onto New Haven and got in line at Pepes Pizza. We waited about 20 minutes to get in and another 20 for our pie, but when it came it was totally worth it. Huge chunks of sausage, thin crust, and delicious sauce. We ate the entire 15" pizza. We left there at around 830 and headed to Sally's aPizza down the street where we waited 45 minutes to be seated and another 80 to get the pie. When it came it was pretty good. The pepperoni had a little more flavour and the sauce was more plentiful but overall not better than Pepe's.

It was a great night and a good excuse to get out of Groton, but if you are ever in New Haven, don't bother with Sally's, just keep walking down the street to Pepe's.

-Nathan

Start It Up

2009-08-03T23:09:00.001-04:00

Gonna start doing this crap again... Standby.

Manhattan Weekend

2008-08-24T23:43:00.000-04:00

We came to New York like millions of immigrants did at the beginning of the 20th century, on a boat. There were a few differences between our situation and theirs however. We left from Nee Jersey, not Europe. We stopped at Liberty Island, instead of Ellis Island since we thought Ellis Island was too boring. Lastly, we didn't have to deal with all of the prejudice that immigrants did since we speak English. Those slight differences aside, our trip to the city was great.

We stayed across the Hudson in Jersey City and took the ferry or train in each day. On Saturday we went to the Statue of Liberty and walked up into the pedestal to look around and see what there was to see. Due to the fact that terrorists are lame, we couldn't climb up into the head, but it was for the best since we would have had to spend all day in line to do that if it had been possible. Next we walked around the financial district, ironically, wall street was closed, so we didn't get to see that. Looking for the Subway to midtown, we stumbled upon the World Trade Center. We didn't spend any time to take in the sight because it was depressing and because there were huge fences blocking the view, but it was weird to see a huge block of nothingness in the middle of a Metropolitan jungle.

When we did find the Subway we went to Midtown and on an impulse decided to go up to the top the the Empire State Building. Unfortunately a couple thousand other people had the same idea, so our impulse trip took about 2 hours, which cut into our Manhattan Temple Time, so we had to put that off until the next trip in the winter. With the time we had left before the show we had tickets for we walked around midtown to Rockefeller Center, Times Square, up and down 5th Avenue, to the Mecca of all Apple Stores, and around central park (kinda). One thing that we did in times square was go to the Toys'r'Us that is there. The whole time we were there all we could think about were the huge breakdowns that all our nieces and nephews would probably have if they were exposed to such a place. It is 3 stories of nothing but toys, candy, mayhem, and a Ferris wheel. The last thing that we did on Saturday was to go to the Lincoln Center on Broadway to see South Pacific. It was a long show, but was also really good. By the time we got out, it was about 1100, so we got back to Jersey in a hurry and went to bed.

Today all we had on the schedule was a Mets game. We took the Subway over to Queens and watched about 7 innings of the game at Shea until we realized that neither one of us really cared about either team that was playing, so we left. It was good though in a way because we got our baseball game fix for the year. After that we jumped in our car and got out of town. All and all it was a pretty solid weekend in the city.

We have some pictures from the top of the pedestal with us and the city in the background kinda, but the ones from the Empire State Building are better.

We had to stop at Ellis Island on the way to and from the Statue of Liberty, but we never got off the boat.

Self explanitory

On our walk up the Empire State Building we saw these two ladies and couldn't help taking a picture. The best that we could come up with for their odd appearance was that they were part of some show like Cirque de Sole. All we know for sure though is that they were super obnoxious french ladies.

At the top of the City

Approximate spot where Max would have had a meltdown.

So tired

2008-08-06T12:36:00.002-04:00

Today marked the last day of my first shift cycle and to be honest, it was more brutal than I was expecting it to be. The first shift lasts 7 days and goes from seven to seven and would be okay if there was actually 12 hours worth of work to do, but because the people who schedule us are lazy and don't seem to care, there isn't. Following days we get a nice normal weekend. Second shift is the same but only lasts four days and the staff are all in training all day so there is even less to do. After this shift we get a four day weekend which is nice but then we go into the gauntlet. 7 days of noon to midnight with one day off then 7 days of 7 to seven, but not the normal way. Needless to say I barely know what time of the day it is let alone what day of the week it is. The best part though was that in the middle of kids we had to take a five hour test that is only administered at eight in the morning, so guess how much sleep I didn't get those two days. Fortunatley I am one cycle down and three to go, hopefully the next ones will treat me a little kinder.

A Weekend In Boston

2008-07-12T17:14:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we went to Boston just to check the place out and put it on our list of places that we have visited. On our way out we stopped at the Boston Temple and did a session, so that was pretty nice seeing as how both Amanda and I are going to be super busy for the next 6 months and we don't know when the next time we'll get to go will be. We stayed in the old Boston Federal Reserve Building that has since been converted to an upscale hotel. That was our base of operations as we walked around the downtown area seeing all of the historical sites, such as a graveyard that has about 5 founding fathers buried there, the Old North Church (which Amanda didn't understand the significance of until she looked it up on wikipedia), the old market, and a plethora of other sites around the area. It was a really neat little town, not unlike Annapolis in a lot of ways, just scaled up and way more cool.

This is the Old North Church that Mame was ignorant about.

Prototype Update

2008-06-18T20:30:00.004-04:00

Well things are going well at prototype, I am in my fifth week of Off Crew Training and in another two I will be shifting to On Crew work. Just to clarify my jargon, during off crew I get to work 0600-1700 (600-500) learning different systems for the particular plant that I am working on. Once I get to the point where I think i know the system well enough, I go to an enlisted staff member and they quiz me. If they think I know enough then they sign my book of things I need to do (total is about 1500 signatures) and I get points. During off crew our "curve" (quota for points per day) is 35 (pronounced 3 5 per the Sub IC manual, that's right we speak in digits) and each system is on average about 20 points. The goal is to get as far ahead of this curve as you can before On Crew starts. Right now I'm about 10% ahead and hopefully will be about 14% by the time I move into the plant.

Once I go on crew shift work starts and every 7 days I get a few days off and then get to change to a different sleep schedule. There are 4 shifts that run a 5 week cycle; Days (0730-1930), Swings (1200-2400), Mids (1930-0730), and T week (0730-1930). During this time I'll be standing watched inside the engine room and nuclear plant. At the MARF plant the two are separate, normally this wouldn't be the case but at MARF we have the Nuclear Plant of 60's era submarine hooked up to the Engine room of a 50's era destroyer. It was basically thrown together in the 60's as a makeshift prototype and they've been using it ever since. Anyways, I digress. Once I get on crew I'll post some more info on how that all works, until then though, it's time for bed.

I work somewhere in this picture. Hint it's not the giant ball, there isn't anything in there anymore.

Palmyra

2008-05-25T14:38:00.001-04:00

So we figured that since we live in upstate New York now, we should probably make a trip out to Palmyra at some point during the next six months. The opportunity for that came up when our new ward was looking for volunteers to help with baptisms at the temple. Amanda and I volunteered and yesterday made the trip out there. The past week it has been super cold and rainy every day, but yesterday it was sunny and warm and overall perfect weather for the drive out and our time there. We got to go to the temple, which is quite small but at the same time very ornate. There are very few decorations at all on the inside except for the stained glass windows of sacred grove trees which are everywhere.

After the temple, we went to the hill Cumorah to check that out, other than the fact that it's a big hill where something happened it's not that spectacular, it is fun to run down it though as it is quite steep.

Last but not least we went to the sacred grove to walk around and see the place where it all began. It was very peaceful and beautiful with a very strong spirit. The whole day could not have been better if we had asked. I think both Amanda and I would suggest getting out there if you can.

The New Place

2008-05-17T11:56:00.008-04:00

The Race!

2008-04-10T20:54:00.001-04:00

As most of you know, we Moore women have never been known for our coordination or athleticism. In order to combat that reputation, I decided to join Nathan in the Cooper River Bridge Run. The run was a 10k race over the new Ravenel bridge and finished in downtown Charleston. While this run would not be much of an accomplishment for Nathan, since he could run it without any preparation, I started running about three weeks before the race and realized that running isn't a natural skill for me and even though I would probably be able to get through the run, it would be painful.
The day before the race, Nathan proved himself once again to be a wonderful husband and promised to run with me, no matter how slow for the entire race as long as I never stopped to walk. That gave me the confidence aI needed as well as some more motivation because I didn't want to fail in front of Nathan, especially when he was sacrificing his run time to go slowly with me.
Race day! We woke up at 5:15 am after finally going to sleep at 1 am and drove to the starting line. The starting line was crazy! There were 40 thousand people in the race and they were all around us in their short shorts and some in their crazy costumes. After a couple hours of standing around, and two back to back renditions of the national anthem, it was time to start the race. It started out pretty, good, for the first mile and a half, but then we hit the bridge. Even though I had run the 6.2 miles before, I hadn't practiced running uphill and there was a mile of hill right ahead of me.
Even though it slowed me down tons, Nathan kept his word and stuck by me and proved to be quite the cheerleader. The rest of the race was about as difficult as the hill for me, but I didn't stop "running". I put running in quotes because there were a few instances where I was running at a pace that I could have beat walking. After what seemed like forever, the finish line was finally in sight! I mustered what little strength I had left and picked up my super slow pace to an only moderately slow pace to cross the finish line. After over an hour, Nathan and I crossed that glorious finish line and never being one who likes to follow directions, i didn't continue running 50 yards past the finish line as instructed. Instead, I ran about three yards, stopped and puked all over the road. Nathan was fortunate enough to be far away from me when it happened, but had the privilege of witnessing the event. After walking it off I was of course just fine and was super happy because I had actually run 6.2 miles.
The run encouraged me to start running more and be in more races because there are very few feelings as satisfying as finishing something throughout which you want nothing more than to stop, but somehow(in my case my amazing inspiring husband) you manage to keep going and finish it. While I'll probably never reach the level of Dave or Jody, I'm definitely looking forward to more running in the future with Nathan!

Lighting of the First Draft

2008-02-11T20:06:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, Amanda has been working super hard over the past month or so to write her big paper for St. Johns. So when she finished a few weeks ago we decided to have a little celebration by lighting all of her initial hard copies ablaze. We called it the Lighting of the First Draft, and as you'll see in the video, the fire was pretty sweet, mostly because we crumpled up about 300 pieces of used printer paper to fuel it. Anyways, enjoy.

Happy Birthday Amanda!!!

2007-12-02T19:11:00.001-05:00

Today was (is) Amanda's Birthday and we decided to celebrate in style so we invited some of our friends over for cake and ice cream with a little guitar hero action. The party was pretty sweet especially when it got time to blow out the candles. As you know it's really difficult to put 22 candles on a cake, so instead I decided to put five on and only light three representing a 22 in binary. It was pretty amazing, and nerdy, but everyone got a kick out of it. Then when it was time to give Amanda her other present she got to go on a scavenger hunt, since I was too busy to go out and find wrapping paper and wrap it. At the end of the hunt she found her present, the Daring Book for Girls, a guide book for girls. All in all it was a really good party and anyone who wasn't there is lame.

Christmas in the Carolinas

2007-12-01T17:11:00.001-05:00

Well, It's that time of the year again, and here in South Carolina we decided to not sell out and keep it real by getting a real Christmas Tree. I was trying to figure out what Amanda would really like for her birthday, and I couldn't think of anything good so I just told her we could get a Christmas Tree. Fortunately for me, I lucked out and she thought that it was an amazing present. So we went out and picked up a base and some lights and some ornaments and a tree, then came home and put them all together. Amanda even let me pick out my own ornament, so I picked out one that looked like stupid Ulee. It's really nice having a tree in the house. Even though it won't be around for Christmas and we'll hardly ever see it, it's neat to actually have our very own first REAL Christmas tree. Not that there is anything wrong with fake ones, other than they are lame. Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone, we're looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Nuke School or Jungle Cruise?

2007-11-15T22:36:00.001-05:00

So Nuke school is a lot of fun... NOT. It actually sucks. But it sucks in a good way. By that I mean that I spend 16 hours inside a building everday and learn about how Nuclear reactors work, which is really interesting, but also very tedious. Right now however, I do have an instructor who breaks up the monotony a little bit. He teaches my physics class, which lasts from 2-3 hours a day, and he reminds me of one of the Jungle Cruise Boat Captains at Disneyland. From the second he enters the room to the second he leaves he shoots out bad pun after bad pun about everything that we talk about. Not surprisingly he gets the same reaction that the Jungle Cruise Captains get, a half hearted laugh with a sideways glance to see if everyone else is humoring him. The best part about it I think, is that you can tell that he has obviously scripted these puns into his lesson and uses them over and over and over again with every class that he teaches (Much like those ride operators do). When this resemblance first made itself known to me I asked Pat Cashin if he agreed, he said yes, and to make a long story short, now whenever a bad pun is thrown out but this instructor, I say some line from the Jungle Cruise script like, "Look out the hippo is wiggling it's ears and blowing bubbles!!!" My saying things like that really isn't any more funny than his puns, but at least it makes the days go by faster, which you need when you're trying to memorize 100 pages of text ver batem in less than a week. Cheers!!!

Indoc Week To Date

2007-11-07T18:27:00.001-05:00

Well, this week is our "Indoctrination" week, and for the most part it has been Indoctri-boring! Yesterday all we did was sit through pointless briefs all day, the highlight of which was a morbidly obese senior chief giving us a brief about drug and alcohol abuse prevention. As she paced up and down the center aisle, she spun off on every tangent that popped into her head instead of sticking to the 5 slide powerpoint lecture that had been prepared for her. What should have taken 10 minutes took a whole hour. The plus side was that we got to hear about
how to score some cocaine at a local bar, and how to avoid getting raped by a transsexual. Mentally stimulating to say the least.

Today we had more briefs, but they had the common decency to give us the morning off. Unfortunately they didn't have the common decency to let us sleep in. We still had to get up and check in, then we were allowed to leave for the rest of the morning. I came back to the apartment and then went back out and bought Guitar Hero III for my Wii. Then I came
back to the apartment and played it all morning because it is a freaking awesome game. Josh, if you are reading this (doubtful) don't buy it, because you guys are our family for christmas and I think it's a game you might enjoy.

Anyways, tomorrow we have the afternoon off, so I'm going to bake some bread and contemplate the treacherous drive up to Maryland. Have a good rest of the week everybody, Cheers!

Moving Along

2007-11-01T19:02:00.000-04:00

Well, tomorrow is the last day of my first full week here in Chucktown. For the most part it has been a pretty low key week. Yesterday I finally got my "Green Badge" that lets me go into the building all on my own, so that was exciting. This morning when I went in at 6:30, all I had to do was swipe my badge and I was in. But then after I got in I had to take 5 hours worth of exams to see if I'm still smart, and from the way it felt when I walked out of there, I'm not. I know that I passed it because to pass all I had to do was answer 300 of 800 questions right, but still I think that I was pretty close to the 500 mark, which isn't that great. I suppose that just means that I still have a lot of work to do. I guess it's good that I'm here for the next six months doing nothing but work!

Another good thing about this week is that I learned I would have the next two mondays off, so that means two three day weekends in a row! That also means for the next two weekends in a row, I will be making the long and tedious drive up to Annapolis. Don't get me wrong, the ends justify the means, but it's still a long freaking drive, both ways. I'm glad that we have the opportunity to take these weekends to see each other to make the moving out process a little bit less tormenting. I know that eventually we'll get used to it, probably in just enough time for Amanda to move down, but it's nice to ease into things when you can.

Take care everybody, and I'll post again soon. Cheers!

P.S. I'm well aware of the fact that Amanda is probably the only one reading this. But still everybody, take care.

Charleston

2007-10-30T12:05:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been four days here in Charleston now, and I figure that I should get back to documenting how things are going in my life. The new apartment is pretty sweet. It's very empty but, hopefully once I get some free time that is not during the workday, I'll be able to scour craigslist for a cheap table, couch, and computer desk, because right now, the only furniture that we really have is a bed. It's a comfy bed though. I'll put pictures at the bottom of the blog.

Amanda is gone, but thankfully, not forgotten, we've figured out how to use modern technology to our advantage and have been talking on the phone and over the internet using our fancy iSight cameras in our fancy computers. So that is really nice. I have Monday off for the next two weeks in a row, so I'll be making the long drive up to Annapolis for the next few weekends, I'm really looking forward to that commute, but I suppose we do what we have to do.

School hasn't started yet, but tomorrow is our "Report no later than" day, so we actually start going to some briefs and things like that. The building that I report to everyday is called the Rickover center and it is pretty sweet. I show up at eight and give them my ID, then they make me sign a book and give me a sweet pink badge and two handy dandy escorts. My escorts take me to where I need to go, and then ditch me. Then when it is time to leave (Anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour later) I get two new escorts to take me back to the front door. Hopefully I'll get my sweet green badge soon. It will have a picture of me on it and a special bar code that I scan in to keep track of when I'm in the building. It's super futuristic. Thursday I have a diagnostic test that is going to let them know that I'm not as smart as I think I am, so hopefully it will go well. For now, that is it really, I'll keep you all posted as I go. Cheers!

I LOVE NATHAN AND HE'S GOING TO ROCK HIS PRT!!!!

2007-01-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

Wow! So, I guess the title kinda said it all! Anway, I guess I can say it again. I love Nathan Cory Voelker and he's gonna Rock his PRT tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

What Would Admiral Adama Do?

2007-01-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

So... I have been thinking a lot lately about my PRT and way that I can motivate myself while I'm running tomorrow, and here is what I've come up with. I will fight with every ounce of strength that I possess to make sure that my mission is accomplished, just like Admiral Adama does every day of his life on the Battlestar Galactica. I mean think about it, the Cylons have put that man through more misery than anyone deserves, but what does he do? He wakes up every morning, if he even goes to sleep, puts on his uniform, and he FIGHTS!

Much like Admiral Adama and the Cylons, the PRT has put me through a whole lot of misery. As most of you know it's never been my favorite thing in the world, and it never will be. But as I thought some more about it I realized something. The PRT has never tried to wipe out my entire species, although it has claimed many of my friends commissions. The PRT has never held me in a standoff while in orbit over an algae planet and made me choose between killing my friends and handing over the next key in the secret to finding earth. Most importantly, the PRT has never shot me in the gut like that stupid Boomer did that one time.

Basically all the PRT does is stress me out to no end, and that is okay, because the truth of the matter is this. I will pass my PRT tomorrow, and afterwards it won't be there anymore. I don't have to ever wake up again and think to myself, what if the PRT comes back today? Because it won't. That is what makes Admiral William Adama a true hero, and that is why when I run tomorrow I won't give up, because he's up there right now looking for us and he's not giving up, and he never will. Here's to you Bill. Keep fighting, because I certainly will.

As and addendum to this post I would also like to add that, more than "What would Admiral Adama Do?", I will be thinking of all the people who love me and are fasting and praying for me to pass. I'm super thankful for all of you and I love you a whole bunch. Thanks again.

Self Righteous Retired Colonel Makes an Ass of Himself and the Corps

2007-01-25T13:49:00.001-05:00

So... It was after lunch, and Amanda was coming over to drop some stuff off for me. When she got here, we stood outside of her car for a little while and hugged, had a few short kisses, and talked, nothing serious or major. So as we were talking about how cold it was and how my coat was a little too big for me and didn't work that well, this guy walks by. As he's walking, he does a bit of a double take, and then stops and asks me to take a walk with him. So, realizing that he's probably someone that thinks he's important, I followed.

He introduced him self as Colonel XYZ Retired, United States Marine Corps, and then proceeded to tell me about how that kind of behavior is unacceptable and I should know better than to engage in such lewd public displays of affection. Of course I gave him the respect he felt he was entitled to, and told him everything that he wanted to hear. But honestly, that is ridiculous. Is it so wrong to give your fiance a hug and a kiss, it's not like we were making out or anything like that. Personally, if i was walking by that and I was in his position, I would say, "Good for you, I'm glad that you show affection to the woman you love in a way that is totally appropriate in the uniform." But instead he was a Delta Bravo and persuaded me to hate the Corps even more than i already do.

When I finally got done with my little walk and talk session, I went back over to Amanda, and as soon as I got there, someone (presumably a plebe) yelled out of a window, "AHHH SCREW HIM... KISS HER AGAIN!" I didn't at that moment, but we talked for a little bit longer about things until we were interrupted by another yell, "YOU CAN DO IT!!!". I was a bit embarrassed as i now obviously had an audience, so we talked for a little while longer, then I gave Mame a goodbye kiss that was heralded by applause and more yelling. The whole situation was ridiculous, and hilarious.

I hate Marines.

Matt Guyton is Officially Retarded

2007-01-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

So... Pictured above is the one and only Matt Guyton, AKA: M@, Zebra, Mathematics, etc (All of which are self proclaimed). Matt is one of my good friends, and is usually pretty good about knowing what is going on in my life, just as I am pretty good about the same thing for him. Today however, when I was talking to him, I told him not to make any plans for next weekend. As a confused look came over his face, he asked, "Why, is something special happening?". No, of course not Matt, nothing special at all is happening, that is why I'm telling you to not make any plans. The conversation continues. "Matt, something very important is happening next Thursday night and we're celebrating on Saturday night, does that help?" To which he responded, "Is it your birthday or something?". At this point, someone else jumped in the conversation and informed M@ that my birthday is in fact, in August. But Zebra should have known that since HE WENT TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY! Anyways, we went back and forth for about five minutes, trying to see if he could remember whether or not I was going to get off of restriction any time soon, and he didn't. I ended up just having to tell him finally. The best part of all of this is that i'm getting to know Matt's true roots. He was without a doubt one of those special spirits who helped escort Satan down to earth. Congratulations Matt! YOU DID IT! HIGH FIVE!!!

It's Snowing and It's Depressing

2007-01-21T18:06:00.001-05:00

See title of post for details.

Blog Retardation, The Office and the Temple

2007-01-21T15:46:00.001-05:00

So... to begin with the first subject of Blog Retardation. This isn't Nathan, as the post will say, but it's Amanda. I can't sign into my account so I'm unable to post in my name. Another topic of this subject is the fact that I've only posted once and this is not just Nathan's blog, but "OUR" blog. Cute, huh. So, to close this first topic, I'm retarded with everything that has to do with blogs. Today, however, I actually have something to write about. Two more things, actually. The first is this past week's episode of the Office. I wasn't that excited for it because my mom said it wasn't as funny as past ones. Well, I guess I didn't learn from my siblings that my mom isn't always a reliable source for reccomendations, seeing as how she recommended "Dead Poet's Society" to my brother as a fun date movie for his first date EVER!!!. Turns out, her opinion of this week's episode was way off as well. It was possibly the funniest episode I've ever seen!!! (If you don't watch the office, you're retarded and you should!)

Next has to do with the temple and why I think some people should go to the temple, even if they're not ready, to save the rest of the world's eyes. For those of you who don't know, the temple is a big thing for mormons. You usually don't go unless you're about to go on a mission, about to get married, or you're a 27 year old woman who will never get married or go on a mission and they decide to let you go. So... once you go through the temple, if you're a girl, you have to dress modestly. This means no low cut shirts, super short skirts or tank tops. You may think, that's terrible that girls can't show you what they've got. I'm here to tell you that the whole world would be a better place just for the modesty reason if everyone went to the temple. Here's why.

Nathan and I went to the temple on Saturday with other people from church. We were some of the only people who went inside the temple, but the other people came and went to the visitors center. At lunch time, we all met up and grabbed gyros at Manny's. While sitting there, we noticed one of the girls with us, not a hot girl, was wearing an uncomfortably low shirt. UNCOMFORTABLY LOW!!! We were able to see every little blotch and pimple on the upper half of her breasts. Sweet, huh. This is the same girl who to church, generally one of those places you want to be somewhat covered, wore a dresss so low nathan told her he'd like to see the other half of it sometime. So, at Manny's in a very honest moment, I turned to Nathan and our friend Ellen and told them that some people should go to the temple just so they can't wear low cut shirts anymore. So, women of the world, especially those of you without marriage on the horizon (that means not too cute girls), go the the temple. Please!!!! Do it for the rest of us!

New Position Leads To Increased Amount of Small Talk

2007-01-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

So... a few days ago, someone decided that the way we used to do restriction muster was no longer good enough. The way that it used to be was we would form up in two platoons, each having a platoon commander, and then there would be one "head restrictee." Now the platoon commanders and head restrictee have traditionally been those restrictees who, regardless of rank, had been on the longest, or the ones that knew what was going on better than anyone else. These are the seasoned veterans, guys who got 60 days with none suspended. But like I said things changed.

Now what the powers that be want, is for the first class who have been on the longest to hold these once prestigious positions. So out of the 5 first class that are on restriction, I have been on the second longest, making me a platoon commander, and maybe one day if i'm lucky (next week), the head restrictee. The job of the head restrictee and platoon commanders is to inspect the other restrictees. When inspection time comes, the officer (in red), inspects one platoon while that platoon commander follows him, and the head restrictee inspects the other. Now when you are following, there is absolutely nothing to do, so you get to make small talk with the 20 people that the other guy is inspecting, one by one.

Over the past few days, i've gotten to know a whole lot about these people who I am standing restriction with. For example, I know "How it's going" for almost all of them, I'm starting to get an idea of "What's up" with about half of them. Another popular topic of conversation is how many days people have left, I get asked this question at least once a day, so I tell them. My most favorite thing is when people actually try to make conversation with me. For example yesterday I learned that one of my fellow restrictees was not doing so well because he was nervous about getting eye surgery soon. So like the good leader I am, I took him in my arms and told him that he had nothing to fear, that we each fight our own battles every day and the way we face those battles shows us for who we really are. Needless to say after a few tears, my new friend was still scared, but now had the courage to get a laser shined in his eye. It's moments like this that make being on restriction all worth it. I can't wait till I can have another one soon.

FALSE!

Flawed System

2007-01-17T20:15:00.000-05:00

So... Tonight we had a new addition to our motley crew of restricted midshipman. I'm not going to say his name, because none of you know him, except maybe you Pat. Anyways, this kid got in trouble for the same thing that I did, except for his infraction of the rule was much worse. This guy left before noon meal on a Thursday. So not only did he leave early, he also missed a military obligation. For those of you who aren't aware, the latter is a very big no no. At least when I was leaving early, I was making sure that I had done everything that I needed to for the day. Anyways, the fact that he is on restriction doesn't make me mad, what makes me mad is the duration for which he is on restriction.

Now, for leaving 1/2 early on a Thursday evening, I got 45 days with 15 suspending, this means that if I'm good, which i have been, I only have to serve 30 of my 45 days. This kid, another 1/C by the way, didn't even get 30 days, he didn't even get 21 days, he didn't even get 10. He got 7, with 5 suspended. For those of you out there who aren't quick on the uptake, this means that this kid only has to stand 2 FREAKING DAYS. Not even that. He started at 8:00PM tonight, and he gets off at Midnight tomorrow. What is that, a grand total of 28 hours. Congratulations, buddy, you did it.

What the hell is the problem with a system where one person gets absolutely screwed, and another gets of easy for doing the "exact same thing"? I would tell you what was wrong with it, but that wouldn't help my situation if the "wrong people" saw this thing. But if you want to call me, i'd be more than willing to hash out the details with you. ARGGGGGHHH!!!! At least I'm half way done with this Bravo Uniform Lima Lima Sierra Hotel India Tango. Jeez.

PRT Update

2007-01-16T15:04:00.000-05:00

So... for those of you who don't know, in the "Navy" we have these things called PRTs and they happen once every semester. PRT stands for physical readiness test, and consists of push ups, crunches, and a 1.5 mile run. Now there are many things that I hate about this test, many, many, many things. The first of which is that I am in excellent physical condition, but for whatever reason was not blessed with exceptional running skills. So, the first month and a half of every semester, i get to spend at least half an hour of my day down on a treadmill trying to get my time down to where it needs to be, a 7 minute mile or 10:30 mile and a half. For those of you who aren't good at math or with distances, Jenny, this is about the same as running next to a car going 9 miles per hour for about 12 city blocks.

So... for the past two weeks, I've been slowly but surely fighting my way to that pace, and today i finally made it. That's right, I ran a 9 minute and 50 second mile and a half. Granted I ran it on a treadmill, and running outside is much different, but still, now at least I am confident that I can run that distance in less than the time I need to, in ideal conditions. I still have a long way to go, but this is a good start. Heck, tomorrow I might even run outside. That's not true, tomorrow I'm going to do 4 half mile intervals, run for 3 minutes at 10mph, then walk for 1.5 minutes, then do it all over again, 4 times. Then Thursday I'll probably run outside and see how long it takes me to do a mile and a half. Anyone who wants to join me, Jake or Dave, can if they want to.

I Wish I Was A Member of My Ward

2007-01-14T19:13:00.000-05:00

So... today when I went to church for the thousandth time since I've been in Annapolis, a lady came up to me and asked me if I was visiting. Now this wouldn't be so bad if this was the first time something like this had happened, unfortunately it wasn't. A few months ago a different lady came up to me and welcomed me to the ward. This event was a bit more disconcerting due to the fact that I had been over to her house on many different occasions. The last event occurred about a month before that when a member of the bishopric asked me where he could find brother Voelker, so that he could ask him to say the prayer. I really don't understand what is going on. I've been here for three and a half years, I go to church, and I'm pretty active, why do people not know who I am.

Another wonderful thing about this situation is that Amanda, who has been going to church in Annapolis for a whole year now, is more well known than I am. In the first two cases when the ladies had realized they had made a mistake, they immediately tried to comfort me by telling me that they knew Amanda. That's freaking great, I'm glad that you know the Amanda, but I'VE BEEN TO YOUR HOUSE!!! COME ON!!! It's a good thing that i'll be leaving soon, because at least then the ward will get its wish of me not being a part of it anymore. JEEZ!!!

This Movie Truly Was Stranger Than Fiction

2007-01-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

First things first. Hi, my name is Amanda and I'm Nathan's impotent and unfunny fiance'. Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. As you all know, Nathan is on restriction which means our opportunities for dates are limited. Fortunately for us, however, tonight the Naval Academy was host to a movie showing of a fantastic and hilarious film, Stranger than Fiction. Nathan and I were both excited because not only would it give us a chance to cuddle in a darkened auditorium, it would provide us with much needed entertainment. I'd been looking forward to this date all day! I blow dryed my hair(which in case you didn't know is kind of a big deal becaue it doesn't happen very often), put on eye makeup consisting of more than my usual "just mascara", curled my hair (Like I said, I was really excited for this date) and put on an adorable ensemble just for Nathan.
When I got there, Nathan was waiting for me, looking incredibly dashing and quite dapper in his blue and gold warm ups. We went into the auditorium and found first class seats right in the middle. After a preview, the movie was ready to begin. Hooray, it was finally time to laught at the crazy antics of Will Ferrell. Yay! It was time to laugh at the unfotunately hilarious life of harold crick. Hooray! Yippee! Stupendous! Fantastic!... FALSE! Instead of will Farrell we had the opportunity to witness Hugh Jackman ( yes, THE Hugh Jackman. The incredibly effeminate actor who was miraculously able win us over with his rugged masculinity as Wolverine in X-MEN, but is unable to convince us of any heterosexual tendencies in any other role. Yes, it was one and the same) in the role he was born to play. We had the exciting chance, nay, the chance of a lifetime, to behold him in all his acting glory as a ti-chi, monkey surgery doing, bathtime loving, star gazing and floating, conquistadoring, mayan legend chasing protaganist in a film unlike any you've ever seen, THE FOUNTAIN. After watching about half the movie I still have no idea what it was about and all I can say is that it truly was, as Nathan so aptly put it, Stranger than Fiction. What a date!

Amanda K. Moore is Impotent

2007-01-13T11:01:00.000-05:00

So... From the title of this post i'm sure that i've got you're attention. I'm not trying to make fun of the love of my life in any way at all, i'm just stating a fact. She has trouble posting. Posting to this blog that is. When i first started this venture, i added her as a contributor with the hope that she would find some things to write now and again, you know, her perspective on things. But alas, just as her character in Nathan and the Roommate of Doom, Amanda in real life also has no thoughts of her own.

This is absolutely not true by the way. Amanda is actually one of the smartest, most clever, most literate people i know. Unlike Jackson Anderson, who is so illiterate i can't even stand it. The thing with Amanda is, that she thinks that what she has to say won't be as funny as what I have to say. First of all, I don't believe this, because when she goes on a rant, it's absolutely hilarious. And secondly, even if it wasn't as funny, or funny at all, maybe that's what this blog needs, a little bit of yin for my yang.

So, Amanda my love, grow a pair, and post. I love you!

Best Office Episode Ever!

2007-01-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

So... I finally got to watch the second to newest episode of The Office tonight, that means the one from two weeks ago, and let me tell you it was hilarious. It's the one where Michael comes back from Jamaica. You should watch it... Now. There are only twenty more days of restriction and I am officially 1/3 of the way done. So suck on that Brian Stoniecki, you son of a bitch!

Golden Anchor Club

2007-01-10T12:47:00.000-05:00

So... I was talking to my good friend Patrick Cashin today on the way back from class, and somehow an interesting subject came up. He told me that there is a club for people who go to the Naval Academy called the "Golden Anchor Club." Now this isn't one of your normal clubs that go out and raise funds and do community service on the weekends, nope that's not it at all. This club is for people that have done something with a member of the opposite gender for which they can get into conduct trouble, in each of the academic buildings on the yard. If you only get one, then it doesn't count, you have to get all eight, and then once you have done that, you are a full member with shiny golden anchor status.

Like I said, there are eight academic buildings that must be "Commissioned" in order to receive membership. They are as follows; Sampson, Mahan, Maury, Rickover, Nimitz, Michelson, Chauvenet, and Lejune (Because sometimes there are classes there). Now apparently all but Chauvenet and Michelson are rather easy to accomplish due to the fact that there is a lot of unused space. The problem with the other two is that those are the buildings where all of the freshman and sophomores go at night to get all of their work done and to kiss up to their professors.

I think that this Golden Anchor Club is quite an organization, the members of it are obviously very good at avoiding detection in the most unconventional of circumstances. I'm not saying that I'm going to try to join this club, definitely not, especially while I'm still on restriction. But... I would be very impressed if anyone that I knew was indeed a member. That's all I'm saying.

Surprise!!!

2007-01-10T00:20:00.000-05:00

So… I've been on restriction for seven days and let me tell you, I'm actually starting to like it. You may or may not have realized it, but that last sentence was a lie. The only things that I'm starting to do is get used to it. It's like anything that you do, after a while you forget what life was like before it, then when you're done with it, you forget what life was like during it. So after about seven days, I've finally reached the point where I am used to the monotony and boredom.

Now for a bit of education. You may not realize this, but the other side of the restriction game, the administration, also has rules that it has to follow. The main rule that keeps us lowly folk safe is that during the school week, no surprise restriction musters can be called. That’s right, surprise restriction musters. They are more evil than a koala bear that has been painted red and had its claws sharpened so that it can tear through flesh instead of the bamboo shoots that it normally eats. Now, the good thing about the surprise restriction muster rule is that if the administration breaks it, they don't get in trouble. So today, we had a surprise muster at 1300, after which they told us to go move furniture around to work off extra duty, another of my "punishments".

I just love the fact that if I break a restriction rule, I get 16 more days of restriction, but if the people in charge break a rule and I miss muster, I get 16 more days of restriction. Thankfully today I was within earshot of where the announcements come out, but in the future I might not be so lucky.

On a positive note, I saw Amanda for a few hours today and it was amazing. We got to do something super sneaky and super fun. I call it a TOP SECRET Ninja Mission. I would go into more detail, but the matter of fact is that I can't. All I can say is that it was super sneaky and super fun. Super Fun. I love that girl, she is so great and always makes sure that I'm doing alright. How lucky am I to be blessed with such a special soul as hers to be paired with mine. It blows my mind to think of any way that I could possibly be deserving of a woman of her caliber, but here she is, and I'm not going to ask any questions. I'm just going to marry her five months from today, and then spend the rest of my life and beyond happy in the knowledge that she is truly my better half.

Restriction Is Not Like The Breakfast Club

2007-01-08T22:15:00.000-05:00

So... I've been getting some questions lately about similarities that may or may not exist between my life on restriction, and the humorous circumstances of the Brat Pack in the 80's cult classic, "The Breakfast Club". The main point of this post, however is to help you to realize, that restriction is nowhere near as fun.

Reason number one... If you had dandruff as bad Ally Sheedy did, you would fail every uniform inspection that you had. By the way, there are at least three a day, five on the weekends, and if you fail one, you get another day of restriction. That is why I use Head and Shoulders, to keep those pesky flakes off of me. That, and a ring of tape, those two things keep me flake free!

Reason number two... There are no drug induced dance fests. I wish there were, but there aren't. The closest that we come to that is standing absolutely still while someone walks around looking at us. Actually, that's not true, the other day I had kind of a dance fest. I slept in too late and had to run to inspection, so I was throwing on my uniform while I was running down the hall. But seriously, other than that, there is no dancing.

Reason number three... The "Breakfast Club" only convenes on Saturday mornings from 8 to 12. I'm on restriction 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the duration of 30 days. Plus the possibility of 15 more being added if I'm not a good boy. I guess that makes my club more of like an "All Day Feast Club" because we never stop eating our pain. Plus every day we get new members and lose old friends. If I was in the "Breakfast Club", then i'd be stuck with Judd Nelson, and EMEEEELLLLIOOOOOO Estevez. Booooooo!!! I'd much rather be hanging around with people who got in trouble for trying to blow stuff up, than ones that tried to kill themselves with a flare gun.

I think that by now, you get the point that I'm trying to make... Breakfast Club, more fun with retarded people. All Day Feast Club (Restriction), less fun with more interesting people.

Bob and a Big Bear

2007-01-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

So... today was day two of Lights on the Bay, and amazingly, we got everything that we needed to done for the first time in the 4 years that I've been doing it. Maybe it's because this year i was in charge and I'm not nearly as bad of a leader as some people would like to believe. The worst part about today was that it is the last day that I'll get to see Amanda for more than 2 or 3 hours in a single day for the rest of restriction (26 Days).

Another bad thing about today was that Bob didn't tie a rope around himself. But I do have a few better pictures of him so that you can get a better idea of what he looks like. One of them is a self portrait that would put Van Gogh to shame, the picture also has weird bald guy, and someone else we have affectionately come to know as "The Predator".

Another exciting thing that happened today was that Amanda and my two roomates (Morgan and Frank), were attacked by a huge bear!!! This thing was at least 20 feet tall, and the four of us decided that we would battle it to the death. Unfortunatley before we could do anything, it ate Frank. After that happened we ripped off its feet, and pushed it over. As it fell however, it shifted its weight and pinned Morgan helplessly to the ground. Amanda was thrown clear by one of it's massive paws, and I remained unharmed since I was the one stabbing it in the heart with a massive stake! It was pretty exciting. That should be enough on that subject.

I Don't Look Like Dwight

2007-01-06T19:19:00.000-05:00

So... A lot of people have been coming up to me lately telling me that I remind them of Dwight Schrute from "The Office". This is retarded for two reasons.

1. I don't look like Dwight Schrute. Proof... Picture analysis.

2. My bobblehead does not look like Dwight Schrutes bobblehead. Proof... Picture anylsis.
I think that is more than convincing enough.

Lights on the Bay, Day One

2007-01-06T18:12:00.000-05:00

So... at the beginning of last semester I had this bright idea to volunteer for something with the hopes that it would help me look better and more motivated in the eyes of my superiors. The activity I volunteered to lead is called lights on the bay, and it is horrible. In November we take a whole weekend and set up these huge light displays all over a park on the Chesapeake, then in January we take them down. So now you have an idea of what it is, let me explain some of the players.

Player one is Bob. Bob is a hobbit, but he is the angry kind of hobbit that Gandalf would probably shoot with a dragon firework or something,that will probably be the last LOTR reference i ever make, so i don't seems like too big of a dork, no offense if Josh or Jake are reading this, because I know you guys love that stuff. So, Bob, he's about 5'3" and weighs about 500lbs, and he is a bossy bossy man, but has no clue what he is doing. He drives around in his truck yelling at us to not do things, and then tells us to do them five minutes later like it was his idea.

Bob

Player two is me, the guy who has to get everybody to volunteer to work with Bob, don't feel sorry for me, because I don't, and here is why.

Player three is Amanda, the girl who volunteered to help me out with this whole thing and the only thing that makes any of it worthwhile. You see I'm on restriction, so I can't leave or see her nearly as much as I want, but since we both do this, I got to spend the whole day with her, and it was marvelous. Just being able to walk around with her for a few hours and break down light displays was spectacular. I love that girl so much.

So anyways, today there were no really bad problems with Bob, but maybe tomorrow he will tie another rope around his waste and keep a giant Christmas tree from falling over. If he does, I promise that I'll get a picture. Till then...