| Monday, October 8th, 2007 |
| 4:26 pm |
It's been a while, hasn't it!
So with school, work, military and family I have been thoroughly engaged. I have gotten some complaints from friends and family for not posting so I thought I might take a second when I can. I am getting close to making it in to the Seattle Fire Department. I will know a week from today if I have a conditional offer. I am thinking of getting out of the Marines which has been a very hard decision. I have been in for over ten years and still enjoy it. The money is useful and I fill an important billet currently. I am wanting to focus more on becoming a fire fighter though and I do not wish to leave my family behind again for another tour. School is going well still with mostly A's and B's. Should be done with everything but a paramedic academy in the next few terms. My daughter is in full day pre-K and is enjoying it. It's fun being a daddy. My girlfriend's son is in first grade now and is very bright. My girlfriend and I are starting to think towards the next big step maybe sometime next year. Life is good and just trying to make each day count. Until next time (or year). Current Mood:  good |
| Saturday, November 18th, 2006 |
| 7:58 pm |
I liked the results!
 Dear Santa...
Dear Santa,
This year I've been busy!
In July I donated bone marrow to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) dj_burn in a life-saving procedure (300 points). Last Monday I bought porn for tranquildarknes (10 points). In June madshutterbug and I donated clothes to the needy (11 points). In March I pulled mscafeina's hair (-5 points). Last Thursday I helped madbobwiley hide a body (-173 points).
Overall, I've been nice (143 points). For Christmas I deserve a new bike!
Sincerely,
pdxmarine |
|
| Monday, November 13th, 2006 |
| 3:57 pm |
I think I'm finally starting to kick the crud that I had last week, yah! The weekend was fun and action packed with highlights being drinking pints with my Marines at Kell's for the Marine Corps Birthday on Friday, helping bluefenox move and eating her yummy family spaghetti recipe on Saturday, and Sunday having family over for a birthday celebration and then heaind to Dante's and Hive later on. It was a busy, good, well-rounded weekend (though I didn't get any homework done). Current Mood:  groggy |
| Monday, November 6th, 2006 |
| 5:37 pm |
Ball Night!
A few of my Marines hamming it up at dinner  Here we are hanging out at the suite that my platoon reserved.  Gee, do you think I'm having a good time?  After the majority of the Marines passed out drunk style, we wondered over to the zombie party. Here is the lovely xagent93x as Dorothy. I liked the lace over the eye accent a lot.  I think a few people were wondering if the hell made her hot or if she made hell hot.  At 5 a.m. I am spent (and out cold).  It was a bit hazy the next morning.  |
| 5:11 am |
Nasty!
As a word of advice, just covering a rusted out hole in the floor of your girlfriend's Volvo 740 with a floor mat is not sufficient defense against a tidal wave of freeway lake (very large and deep puddle) water blasting up through the floor, off the mat and against the interior of the car to hose your girlfriend driving, you in the front seat and your daughter in the child seat behind you with the filthiest, greasiest scum water leaving dirt and debris all over the occupants and windshield. I need to get that welded sometime. On a positive note, we had a great time at the Ball and the Zombie party last night and saw "Borat" today. I will post about the good stuff with pics soon. Current Mood:  dirty |
| Friday, November 3rd, 2006 |
| 5:05 pm |
Busy & Burnt
The last couple of weeks have been quite draining with midterms, firefighter exams, and ramping up for peak season at UPS. Highlights are that I think I did pretty well on the Port of Portland and Portland Fire Bureau written tests. I passed my midterms, which is good for that less than 8 hours a day of studying that I put into my Anatomy & Physiology class. My girlfriend and I had a wonderful time at the "She Wants Revenge"(one of her favorite bands) and "Placebo"(my favorite band) at the Roseland (best venue for such a kick as concert).  Tomorrow night, the Marine Corps Ball and a kick ass Halloween Party to go to.  Movies watched in October: Orlando - An excellent movie about a person's journey through the last 400 years as first a man and then as a woman. Must see. The Lake House - A decent what if movie with a twist that is worth curling up with a significant other to watch. Steamboy - A cool anime with a steampunk theme. X-Men 3 - Alright, but a bit disappointing. Transporter 2 - Better than the first one. Night Watch - A kick ass Russian flick that has an interesting take on the fight between light and dark. Must see. Final Fanatasy VII: Advent Children - An anime eye candy movie mainly. Great illustration. The Cuckoo - a Finnish movie set at the end of World War II with three people comically divided by language barriers in a rather difficult situation. Must see. Slither - Cheesy, 80's style horror. Fun but grotesque. Current Mood:  mellow |
| Monday, October 16th, 2006 |
| 7:07 pm |
Wow!
Frickin' awesome weekend. Did my first 5k run out in beautiful Rainier. The run had a unexpected number of uphills. After the world's longest raffle, I was caught off guard to find I won 6th place. I'm content with that for my first race. After getting back to town I took the fam out to the Beaverton Chuck E. Cheese...talk about a circus. That place is a mad house of noise, lights, screaming kids and parents. A pleasant surprise was bumping into a couple of Marines that I hadn't seen in a while that just happened to be there. That night I worked security at an action sport (snowboarding) movie release party out on Belmont. That was a bit crazy with all the rowdy types pining for beer. They blew through 3 kegs of beer in two hours. The night ended early and some of my Marines and I caught a pint at Kell's.
Sunday was a bit about rest and rain and dropping of kids so that we could go to the AMAZING DRESDEN DOLL SHOW at the Crystal Ballroom. We had a nice dinner at Ringler's and then went and got some CDs while waiting for the concert to begin. While at EM my friend Rachel and company called out of the blue and informed me that they were at Lola's Room. We hung with them for a bit there until proceeding up to catch the tail end of The Red Paintings. The next act was Jason Webley solo with his accordion...jeeze that guy has charisma and got the crowd worked up crazylike. He'll be in the area a bit over the next month, check him out if you can. Then for the grande finalle......The Dresden Dolls came exploding out the gate with their barrage of driving vocals and passionate musicianship. Their lyrics are weighted but invigorating and with purpose, while Amanda Palmer seems to make love to the keys Brian Viglione is creating the heartbeat of the room. Not only do they have wonderful recorded music, but their live shows are overpowered with energy surging forth from the stage. It was truely a pleasure being able to see them live. We capped the night down at Berbatti's Pan for Deacon X's Fetish Night for some good dancing, vouyeuring and socializing. Current Mood:  listless |
| Monday, October 9th, 2006 |
| 1:08 pm |
"Happiness Can Only Be Found Within" by Epicticus (my favorite Stoic)
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. We cannot have a light heart if our minds are a woeful cauldron of fear and ambition. Do you wish to be invincible? Then don't enter into combat with what you have no real control over. Your happiness depends on three things, all of which are within your power: your will, your ideas concerning the events which you are involved, and the use you make of your ideas.Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice indifference to external conditions. Your happiness can only be found within. How easily dazzled and deceived we are by eloquence, job title, degrees, high honors, fancy possessions, expensive clothing, or a suave demeanor. Don't make the mistake of assuming that celebrities, public figures, political leaders, the wealthy, or people with great intellectual or artistic gifts are necessarily happy. To do so is to be bewildered by appearances and will only make you doubt yourself. Remember: The real essence of good is found only within things under your own control. If you keep this in mind, you won't find yourself feeling falsely envious or forlorn, pitifully comparing yourself and your accomplishments to others. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self. For that does fall within your control. |
| 12:17 pm |
A G.I. Joe type weekend!
Friday was wonderful and crazy getting ready for drill. My girlfriend was able to get the day off so we were able to enjoy each other throughout the day. We had a tasty breakfast at the Cameo Cafe and then swung by REI for some bicycle stuff. I got packed up and ready, so she could drop me off at the base. After a many kisses it was time to get to formation. We got out of there pretty fast and were on our way to a training facility near Redmond. We got there at about 2300 and were put into four squads for the weekend. We were told that whoever had the most gear by morning formation would get a special reward. After establishing a secure sleeping arrangement for our Marines, a few of us Sergeants wondered off to probe the other sites. We made some early snatches to gear Marines weren't keeping a close eye on. The big target was the Motor T site which was situated inside one of the buildings in the mock up combat town. A three hour low crawl and 600 yards later we were in the building next to theirs, but they had sentries in each entrance and a roamer. Since it was seeming to be a lost cause and it was approximately 27 degrees outside we called it a night. I went and stood an hour of fire watch and then got about two hours sleep. Saturday was filled with infantry tactics and marksmanship training. Convoy Operations, Military Operations Urban Terrain, FATS System marksmanship practice and BeamHit marksmanship training (I was instructing this one all day) were done on a round robin rotation for the squads. That night I took care of helping my section pack up their Comm gear and did other administrative tasks. I the last couple of hours of my day bullshitting with some of my combat engineer buddies and then crawled into my sleeping bag to stare at a beautiful starry night. Scorpio was right overhead. Sunday was all about packing up and making a good show for the judges who were evaluating our food service platoon for Best Field Mess in the Marine Corps. This is the first time we've been pitted against our active duty counter parts. It was a long day and after spending some time with my girlfriend last night I was out cold at around 9pm. After dropping her son off at Kindergarten I had an invigorating and beautiful run around the waterfront and back. Current Mood:  happy |
| Thursday, October 5th, 2006 |
| 12:42 am |
September's Movie Recommendations
The Salton Sea - Good plot twisting thriller Lucky Number Slevin - Very good action thriller Orlando - Artful and smooth gender bender drama Cheeky - For all of you polyamorous types Current Mood: tired |
| Thursday, September 28th, 2006 |
| 6:53 pm |
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| 6:18 pm |
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| Saturday, September 9th, 2006 |
| 8:23 pm |
Hell Yeah!
CAS 133 Basic Computer Skill/MS Office "A" MP 111 Medical Terminology "A" PSY 201A Intro to Psychology - Part 1 "A" Now onto BI 231 Anatomy and Physiology I |
| Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 |
| 12:01 am |
"Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is a good movie. |
| Saturday, August 26th, 2006 |
| 12:02 am |
Jambo!
Just got back from spending the last three weeks in Kenya building a school and water tank with the Marines. I have 4+ plus weeks of school to catch up on by Labor Day (crap!). Might take my Love out dancing at Embers next Wednesday anyway. Will try to post pics soon. Current Mood:  busy |
| Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 |
| 3:36 pm |
New Place!
So Selona and I got our first place together. A nice little 2 bedroom apartment close to Lloyd Center. We start moving in today, though I don't imagine that being too hard do to the lack of furniture. Suggestions? Craig's List, etc... |
| Thursday, April 27th, 2006 |
| 5:36 pm |
Still a Bit Burnt Out!
So I've ended my 21 credit term from hell and am four weeks into Spring term with only 13 credits this time. I really enjoyed learning what I did last term, but I found myself drawn a little too thin, even for me. My grades were rather satisfying though. 11933 EMT 105 0 EMT Basic Part I "A" 4.000 15237 EMT 106 0 EMT Basic Part II "B" 5.000 17332 EMT 280B 0 CE: EMT - Seminar "B" 1.000 16648 FP 111 0 Firefighting Skills I "P" 5.000 12369 FP 121 0 Fire Science I "A" 3.000 12107 FP 122 0 Funds of Fire Prevention "A" 3.000 Last month I was promoted to management at UPS. I'm responsible for the Secondary Sort area. My crew is mostly long employed union riders with little or no ambition and bad attitudes, though through patience and being a good leader and not just a boss I have done well integrating myself into that position. Apparently it is the least desired spot to supervise as spoken by numerous peers and superiors of mine. I still hold three job titles in the Marine Corps. As a Sergeant I am 1st Squad Leader, a Primary Marksmanship Instructor, and the company Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Non-Commissioned Officer. Try saying all that 3x fast. I have been trying to recharge myself over the past month but find my motivation and initiative not as strong as they were. All's well though and it is a beautiful day outside. I am going to enjoy a nice leisurely ride to work now. Current Mood:  drained |
| Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 |
| 12:47 pm |
I'm an EMT-Basic!!!
Written Exam Date: 3/31/2006 Written Exam Scored: 4/24/2006 Passed Written Results Mailed: 4/25/2006 |
| Saturday, March 11th, 2006 |
| 4:49 pm |
Bit stressed as of late
Within the next three weeks I have 5 written final exams, 5 skills assessment exams, and 2 large projects due, and that's just for school. I am getting started back into the management process at UPS again and I am holding 3 different job titles with the Marines and have drill during my birthday weekend the beginning of next month. Okay...no time for chit chat...have to get over to school and practice fire/EMT skills with my teammates. |
| Thursday, February 16th, 2006 |
| 4:48 pm |
I got an "A" for my EMT 105 (part 1 of EMT Basic) and now am getting started with EMT 106 Had a mid term I think I did well with and another next Monday. I hope all everyone is doing well. |
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