RDC "C" School

Well, after 13 long weeks, I will graduate of RDC "C" School. And, let me emphasize long. It has been. I started RDC School in the beginning of March. And, at the beginning, it seemed like it would never end. It seemed like we were never going to be the senior class at PT. With Physical Training (PT) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 0630 but, we had to be there at 0600 for muster. And, I think the hardest part about PT was the fact we had to do a sub-stained run of 30-45 minutes every two weeks or so in side. That is the hardest to do because the scenery never changes. Around and around we went for 30-45 minutes at a 12-15 minutes per mile pace. Tuesday's were Personal Inspections (PI) on a different uniform every Tuesday. The first two were very, very rough, but after that, it got really better and easier. Thursday's were free until we moved out of the instruction phase and into the shadow phase, and then, we had to rev the division we were shadowing. Sometimes, that rev would be 0400 in the morning. It was a little brutal sometimes. But, after 6 weeks of instruction phase, we moved into the shadow 2 phase, were we had to shadow our divisions and watch how the RDC's did things. It was a little easier, although we had to shadow 8 hours Monday through Friday and 8 hours over the weekend. And, we still had PT on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a PI's on a Tuesday or Thursdays.

The school tested me throughout. Several times I wanted to quit and I often wondered what I got myself into. I kept telling myself the means justify the ends. But, after I think about, I am looking forward to the transformation I will see when 88 civilians become sailors in 8 long weeks. I think that will be the best part of all. It will be long, hard, stressful, and painful at times. But, in the end, it will be worth it.

The Good Sheperd

The lectionary this morning was from John 10: 11-18. As I was listening to the sermon this morning, it dawned on me that I will become a shepherd here in a couple of weeks when I get my first division and this is what God has in store for me in then next 3 years while I am up here. I have been thinking over since January if it was a good idea for me to come up here and train new recruits. It is a stressful, demanding job that requires a lot from you, but I think in the end it will be worth it. This passage and the sermon hit home this morning. I will be a shephered to 88 new recruits. I will watch over them and make sure they get to their destination okay.

A new way to prayer....

I know it has been a while. I ran across this at church today. The church leader brought it up after the announcements. He found reading a magazine, a new way to pray to God every day. And, in today's age, why not, right? Here is someone's answer to pray to God when everyone is busy: Information Age Prayer. Here is what they say on their homepage:

About Information Age Prayer

Information Age Prayer is a subscription service utilizing a computer with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget.

We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying. Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.

At Information Age Prayer we think our service should be used like a prayer supplement, to extend and strengthen a subscriber's connection with God. Traditional prayer is an integral part of this connection and should never be forgone, even after signing up.

You can subscribe for yourself, or you can purchase a subscription as a gift to friends or family.

Promotional Rates for New Users, Limited Time Only!
Choose a Religion from the left menu.

On the left side of the screen, you can pick the following religions: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Unaffiliated, and Other Religions. If I click on Protestant, for a low price of 3.95 a month, a computer with a text to speech voice, will pray the Lord's Prayer to God for me.

I found this pretty funny and ironic. But, in today's age, when everyone is busy, this will probably work. I don't agree with it. One, to today's ecomony, when people can't even put food on the table, foreclosing on their rent payments, etc, but they are still willing to pay a computer to pray for them to God (for a low price of $4 a month.) Oh, well! What will come next!

Are you Going to Finish Strong?

This is pretty amazing. I read several blogs, and this one comes from the "Broadside Blog." The author is actually a cartoonist that does funny cartoons parodying the Navy and Marine Corps. His blog is here. Anyway, his latest his about a guy with no arms and no legs who has an amazing speech. His video is here. I would recommend viewing. It is pretty amazing to say the least.

Where was I......

I can remember when people talk about 9/11 and ask people where they were when they heard the news. So, I just want to get this down for when people ask me where they were when they heard/saw President Obama get sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

I was in the state of Minnesota on Interstate 90 near the town of St. Charles going about seventy listening to NPR.

Where were you at when President Obama was sworn in?

Gurnee, IL

Well, I guess I better update what is going with life so far. After spending Christmas in Portland with my mom and step-dad, Bill, I traveled over to Spokane to spend the night before New Years Eve. Spokane in the month of December got over 5 feet of snow. Without my GPS, I would have never made it to my hotel because the snow piles on the side of the interstate covered the signs. From Spokane, I traveled over one good mountain pass and one snow/ice covered mountain pass to Missoula, MT to spend New Years Eve with my brother Regan. That was a lot of fun, but I couldn't spend more time with him because of another storm coming the next day. So, on New Years day, I traveled over to Great Falls, MT through Lincoln, MT (in case you are following me on Google Maps or something) over another bad snow/ice covered mountain pass through the coldest recorded place on Earth (Rodger's Pass) . After spending time in Great Falls, MT with my dad and step-mom, Sue enjoying friends, family, and studing my for test, I traveled over to Helena, MT to take my E-7 test, which I don't think I did very well. We will see what happens in April. After Helena, I spent one day in Great Falls before heading over to Lewistown, MT and Winifred, MT to see more family. From Winifred, MT, I traveled over through Broadus, MT and Alzada, MT to Rapid City, SD. After spending the night in Rapid City, SD, I went and saw Mount Rushmore National Memorial. From there, I traveled on the Interstate 90 over to Great Lakes Naval Training Center after spending the night in Fairmont, MN.

I found a place in Gurnee, IL through an apartment complex my friend recommened to me. So, here I am sitting in a steel folding chair with the computer on a folding tv table.

Powell's Bookstore

I went into downtown Portland, OR today to look around and get some exercise in. When I was down there, I stopped by Powell's Books . If you are a book reader or just love shopping for books and are in the Portland area for a couple of days, I would recommend stopping by for an afternoon (or two.) They have over seven huge rooms of books and they take up a whole city block in downtown Portland. I think they are rated at one of the best bookstores in the world. It was amazing to say the least. I walked in from the Green Room entrance and was amazed. I had to use the restroom and ended up in the Purple Room after that. I wondered through the History Sections. Next, I wondered up to the Pearl Room where they have a Rare Book Room with books selling between 100 and over 2000 dollars. Next, I wondered over to the Science Fiction section in the Gold Room where they have over like 5 rows of books. It was awesome, and I was in book heaven. So, they have pretty much any book you ever wanted, and if they don't have it, they will find it for you.