Wow almost a year between posts!

Apparently I'm not very good at this blogging thing...

It's humorous to me that I suck so bad at blogging because I read so many people's blogs regularly.

I keep up with Ross Training Blog, MovNat, InvisibleShoe.com, Will Haas Blog, Trail Hacker, In Search of Solid Ground, THOR, Jason Robillard's Teaching: Let's Roll Up Our Sleeves, Shoeless Shel Bell, and last and possibly least The Science of Sport. On top of all those I regularly read Fox News headlines, I'm taking online classes at Bellevue University, and I keep up with friends and family on Facebook. But, for no apparent reason, I cannot make time to sit and type or write up (I just opened my written journal the other day and it was just as outdated as this blog) what I think or feel at any one time.

Just an update on life...

I last wrote while I was overseas deployed, well that time passed more or less uneventfully. I had a terrible time, but the problems were centered around the fact that I wasn't doing what I've been trained to do. And when I tried to change things for the better I only encountered resistance. Well, that time came and went, then I went home (right now I'm writing while back in Mississippi for re-training) and had a great 5 months, or so, among family and friends. The only downside to my time back home was my attempt at applying for the Airmen Education and Commissioning Program (Air Force program to go to school full time and graduate/get a commission) failed; partly because of bureaucratic red tape and partly because Ohio State University wasn't able to process my application fast enough.

After that failed I volunteered to deploy early (I was told I had to deploy again with this program) in order to get back home before the end of summer. Last year I didn't get home until mid-October and I missed all of the fun summer months, so I wanted to go earlier so that I'd get home sooner. Well, while I was going around doing paperwork for leaving I talked with out unit's language program manager and he said there was an advanced language class this fall out at the language institute in Monterey, CA. Well, since that's what I want to do any ways and the class didn't start until Nov and I thought I'd be back in late September, I signed up for it. Well, long story short I found out later that my deployment this time is LONGER than last time and I won't be back till late October. Regardless, I put in the application knowing that if I was accepted into the class they would cut my deployment short so I could get back in time for the class.

So here I am in Mississippi, my application for that language course was denied, but I am supposed to move to Japan as soon as this deployment and more training is done. There are so many things not working out the way I want them and it makes life kind of... suck, for lack of a more all-encompassing word. I am excited about the prospect of moving to Japan. So much so that I'm trying learn Japanese, studying the area and doing everything I can to be well prepared to move there. Unfortunately, this deployment is still looming over my head and I have to complete this stage of life before I can move on.

Of course it's not that simple... I can't move on to the deployment without completing this retraining. Which, by the way, I am not doing very well. I didn't like this program while I was deployed last year and many of the people who were hard to deal with last year are now training the new people and people like me going back out. So, there are personality conflicts as well as people trying to "climb the corporate ladder" (it's slightly different in the military but it still exists) and those people aren't afraid to kick those below them off. So it seems like I'm getting blackballed a little (perhaps not on purpose). On top of getting treated differently (at least it feels like I'm treated differently), I'm inexperienced in much of how we're supposed to do this job. Like I said before my problem with my previous deployment was that we didn't do the job we were trained for... Well, if I didn't do the job while I was out there (deployed), and last year when I went through this training it was totally new training, and the program wasn't very well established and the training wasn't very good; obviously I'm NOT as experienced as I should be.

So here I am failing at life *again, and every day I'm delayed here tacks another day on to the end of my deployment. So, even though I volunteered to go early to get back early it's going to end up that I left only a week earlier and I'm going to get back two weeks later than last year. The ONLY thing (other than God) that's going to get me through this deployment is the looking forward to moving to Japan!

Overseas SUCK

Well, I guess saying this sucks is a bit over the top. It is dusty dry and the accomodations could be better but it really isn't that bad. I am keeping busy working which makes time pass much faster than it would if I were completely bored. It still isn't fun.

Anyways, that's really all I have to say but hopefully I'll be able to come post more often.

Journal = I suck at it...

So, it has been over 2 YEARS since I last Blogged here! So much has happened that I don't have time to go through it all. Basic plot is that I finally finished all the AF training for a linguist then got "selected" (I sort of volunteered) for the AF's Liberty program. It is very interesting.

I am currently in Mississippi taking the final training courses for doing the Liberty program. I am almost done with the academics portion of training but the flight portions keep getting delayed by bad weather. So I have no idea how long I will be here. It really sucks, but right now the program is set up so that we have to do 2-3 months of training right before getting deployed for 6 months. So I will be here until done with training then go to the Middle East for 6 months. Not happy with being separated from my wonderful family, but I am glad to finally be doing a real job for the AF. Hopefully I will be able to keep up my journal here.

%%TITLE%%

%%CONTENT%%

Introduction

Photo taken at the aquarium Feb 2013

Based on my friend's blog I decided that I might have better chances making an online journal-like writing more easily than trying to keep a written journal which I have failed at on many occasions.  When I started this I was on class break for a few weeks and I had a nice time, though I didn't really go anywhere. For those of you who don't know I was living in Monterey, California studying Korean at the Defense Language Institute.

I am in the Air Force and most of the time I enjoy my time though it can be difficult, and annoying things happen every so often for example one Friday we had a "Welcome back" briefing (which for those of you non-military types is just another word for meeting). That morning, and the next day as well, the weather was terrible with pouring rain and 70mph+ winds; of course the power was out, which frequently happens on the post. Well, during the meeting we were all informed of a drivers safety meeting which was to be held that afternoon at 1pm which really upset a lot of people but especially those of us who live off base and have to drive back and forth whenever we have meetings and such.  Well, they said that if the power is still out at the time of the meeting they would not be able to hold the meeting (powerpoint only works on computers that are powered up and can only be seen by large groups when projected on screens by projectors that are powered up). The instructions were, to contact the office at noon to confirm if the meeting was still going to be held; which is not all that great because there are over a 1,000 people that had to attend the meeting and if all of them called at the same time no one would be able to get through. Nonetheless we were a little smarter than that and most of us called our individual group leaders to confirm the meeting. At 12:10(ish) I spoke with my leader and he confirmed that the meeting was still on; I got a ride with him and we picked up a few other people on the way and drove the 15+ minutes to work. Of course this was in a torrential downpour and high winds so much that we didn't feel safe driving the highway so it took a little longer.  Then, when we were about 200 yards from the building where we were to have the meeting, we saw hundreds of other Airmen turning around and walking back towards the dorms. Of course the meeting had been canceled. So, we had been out driving in dangerous weather to try to go to a meeting to tell us not to drive in dangerous conditions only to get almost there and it be canceled. It's times like these that I do not like being in the military.

Please don't misunderstand me I love being an Airman, but sometimes someone in authority needs to stop and think about what is going on and weigh EVERYONE'S situation and make a command decision.

That was written over five years ago by way of introduction to my life.  Now, I've been in the Air Force for just over seven years and I still have ups and downs.  All in all though I've had a good career so far and I absolutely love my current assignment.  I finally got the chance to move overseas and I'm in Okinawa, Japan actually doing the job that I joined the Air Force to do.  I've been doing fairly well with continuing this blog and I'm slightly proud of the work I've done here even though this is really just a hobby of mine and I don't intend to get anything out of it.  I've recently started sharing my blogging on various Google+ communities and I'm glad I did, because it's already fostered some good discussion and introduced me to new friends.

Welcome to my blog I hope you enjoy!