Tuesday Until Now, Along with Some Times We Could've Done Without

It's been so long since Tuesday, but I'll try to remember. I had watch from 800-1200, but my watch relief was a little late, so it was more like 1215, but that wasn't a real big deal. That afternoon we had swimming class where we brought some of our BDU pants (cargo pants we were issued for Indoc) and learned how to inflate them and swim with them. It was actually kind of fun.

After Swimming we headed over to Calc to get our test grades. I think most people were a lot happier with these grades than they were with the first test. The first test did not go very well for most, but many people got A's or B's on this one. Once I got back from class, I used my rack-in to sleep for about 2 hours. Boy, did that feel good. When I awoke I found that Army PT had been cancelled, so I waited a little while, then went to dinner before going back on watch. Watch was again pretty uneventful, though the morning required me to take some pretty bizarre calls. All part of the experience here, I guess.

Wednesday wasn't too exciting either. Class was okay, but the day picked up quite a bit with baseball. It was another mound day for the pitchers, although we were given a new meaning for that when we weren't pitching. Since we didn't have a real bullpen, our pitching coach told those of us pitchers to start building a mound for one. Though it took us most of practice, we got one of the two pitching rubbers set, as well as the mound finished up. It was pretty cool seeing it come together like it did. Because I was one of the last people to throw, I was able to throw to some batters. I did a lot better than Sunday for some reason, but I wasn't complaining! My highlight of the day was catching a senior looking on a curveball. That was so sick!

The rest of the night was filled with study hall and more homework after that because of a physics lab being due the next day.

Thursday too, was also not the most exciting day. Come to think of it, though, most of the days start to blend together after a while. I remember that I had physics lab in the morning, which we finished about an hour early, and we had two class periods of Maritime Studies because the teacher is going to be gone the last week of the class. After class, which was comprised of Cookie Cafe at Land Hall, as well as hanging out with some friends, we lifted in the weight room for Army PT.

When I got back to the barracks, I read an email that our CTO was going to quiz us that night on our 11 General Orders. Thankfully I saw that before leaving for dinner, and I was able to study, and do well on it when I returned. Last night was spent not doing homework, like I should've been doing, but I was able to get most of it done today.

Today was a pretty fun day, though marred slightly by CTO time at 2205. We started off in Maritime Studies Lab where we worked on pipe threading. Pipe threading is a fun activity that also does not take much time, even less when with a group that is on task and has a general idea of what it's doing. Because of that, my group got out about an hour early, leaving me more time to study for my physics test 4th period. After lunch nothing substantial really occurred, though we had to march again for Reg. Period. Baseball was cancelled for today, so I spent the afternoon working on my English paper which is due next Wednesday. I finally made some headway on that, so I'm very thankful.

After dinner I headed out to the chapel for Friday night Men's Bible Study, where we talked about and looked at verses pertaining to God's dreams for us. It was a very entertaining and uplifting study. After getting back I worked on my paper some more before CTO time 2205. It started off alright, though there was no chair set up at the end of the hallway, so I figured we would not be having any fun. Because some people felt it was okay to disrespect some Midshipmen Officers, we all had to do 50 pushups. Only these were done at a cadence slower than I would've liked, with a nice break in the up position after 25. After that, those of us not on flight deck and who took the General Orders quiz last night were ordered to do our cleaning stations for the next 45 minutes. That wasn't all that great, but at least we got stuff clean. Once that finished up, I headed over to a friend's room where I have been sitting for the past 2 hours. I think it's about time for bed, as we have Red Cross training tomorrow morning at 0800, with our Apple Picking TM afterwards. Tomorrow should be a good afternoon/evening. Stand by for further posts.

Well That Wasn't Too Surprising

Sunday was a pretty good day. I woke up, went to church, got back around 1245 and chilled in my room until baseball. Pair church with some good food during the Bible Class, and one has a near unbeatable combination. Baseball was pretty fun because we scrimmaged ourselves. My first at-bat I had to face a 6'10" righty who throws harder any pitcher I've faced. I think he threw me an off-speed pitch, because I was able to lift it to right field for an easy pop-up. My next at-bat was against the best lefty I've ever faced. Now, at first glance, that doesn't mean a whole lot because I haven't faced many good lefties in my life, however, he had some of the sickest breaking pitches that I've seen in the box. I had two strikes on me and he threw a curveball that just nicked the outside corner to send me back to the dugout. I am 100% certain that I had no chance of hitting that pitch. I'm still in amazement of it.

After I finished my second at-bat, I started warming up so that I could go in to pitch. When I finally got to go in, my first hitter was a senior who can put a charge into the ball. I hung a changeup to him, but thankfully he hit a harmless fly ball to the right fielder. I struck out the next two batters without too much trouble. My next inning of work did not go so well. I gave up a leadoff hit before facing one of my company mates. I left a fastball out over the plate for him, and he ripped it to right-center for an easy triple. Oh well, I had fun getting on the mound and throwing to some hitters.

After practice I headed over to Land Hall to have dinner with my sponsor. She brought my fellow sponsor kids and me Subway, which was a happy change from the typical Delano fare. We spent about an hour talking and eating, which was a great way to end a fun afternoon.

Once 1900 rolled around, we were all ready for that night's PKT. We have been working on PKT #2 for a while now and it was time that we buckled down and passed it. It ended up being very easy because I think the seniors wanted us to pass as well. We found out at lunch the next day that we had passed it and had moved on to PKT 3 for next week. Unfortunately, because some kids from 4th Co. thought it was okay to watch a movie and chew tobacco while doing it, we as Plebes got our newfound music privileges revoked. Guess I was right...

Once we returned from Ackerman, where we had taken the PKT, our CTO informed us that we were going to be having a "Health and Welfare Inspection" for contraband food items. This was not unexpected, as CTO had warned us that failure to keep our rooms clean would have consequences. We had to do a set of 20 pushups for each room that got tossed on Main Deck and 2nd Deck. Once CTO had finished with 2nd Deck, we were at a total of 140 when we moved up to Flight Deck. He had just started inspecting rooms when a fellow Plebe started feeling sick and I think passed out on the floor. That put a damper on the inspection and allowed us to return to our rooms. It proved to be good timing since Sunday Night Football was about to start, so a friend and I went back to Land Hall to watch it. Watching football for the first time in a long while was an excellent experience.

Monday was nothing special. I had two classes before lunch and then was done until Dean's Hour. Because we did so well on the PKT as a company (101.8%), CTO gave us rack-in for Monday and Tuesday. I took advantage of that Monday afternoon before Dean's Hour. I also received my Army Combat Uniform (ACU) that I had ordered off eBay for use in Army Ops. I was very excited to say the least. Baseball practice, CFC, and study hall followed Dean's Hour to end the day.

I think I will cover today in my next post as my watch is just about to end. Stand by for further posts.

New Privileges + Going Off Campus = A Good Week

Thursday morning was one of the happier I've had since coming here. When I got back from my firefighting class, I found that the Plebe Regulations had changed in a few places. The main change was that we could now listen to music, so long as we use headphones. This is a huge privilege because most classes before us have not been able to listen to music on their computers or iPods until Recognition. I wouldn't be surprised though, if some "brilliant" Plebes find a way to mess this up for the rest of us.

With that news, the rest of Thursday went a whole lot better with the buzz of these changes in the regs. The rest of Thursday was really not all that exciting, though we did have a cleaning party in our barracks to clean our cleaning stations.

Friday during school hours was not too exciting either, though I got to meet my sponsor, and I got to go to the restaurant on campus where Plebes are not allowed. Sponsor families usually provide Plebes and actually Midshipmen of all classes a place to relax during Liberty or leave, as well as leave campus a couple times a trimester for dinner liberties. So far my sponsor seems to be pretty cool, so I'm pretty fortunate. We had marching practice at the end of school for some sort of parade that is coming up, but I'm not sure what exactly. We had another cleaning party that night that took about two hours to get all of the cleaning stations up to inspection standards. After we were done, our Platoon Commander (floor leader) asked us what kind of food we would like to get. Since we wanted a change from the normal choice of pizza, most of us decided on ice cream. Our Platoon Commander then went out to CVS to get us our pints of ice cream. Unfortunately, they were out of many flavors, so many didn't get their first or second choices, but real ice cream was a definite treat.

Today started about 0630 for me because I wanted to catch some breakfast before finishing up the cleaning for our inspection. There ended up being a lot more than I expected since a few things in my room didn't get done, as well as the mopping of the hallways. I did end up getting everything done, though I needed a few more minutes than everybody else. Thankfully, inspection went pretty well even though I was not satisfied with how our room turned out.

After we were secured from inspection, the rest of the Plebe class was required to attend the soccer game, but I and some of my friends did not have to go because of our BBQ off-campus with InterVarsity Fellowship at Eisenhower Park. When we got there around 1130, there were about 60 total, including the Kings Pointers. We had a great time playing touch football, Frisbee, volleyball, and an egg toss with civilian college students. It was really weird seeing people our own age who don't go to a military academy because their lives are so different from ours. I would still say that it was a great time to fellowship with people like that as well as eat some good food.

Once we got back, we were pretty much free to do whatever we want, since the football game was over. There was another overtime game this week, only this time we did not have the same result as last week. Our other arch rival, SUNY Maritime, ended up pulling off the win after we were unable to score in our overtime chance. That may have been part of the reason that we were not granted liberty, but I'm guessing there were other causes as well. Tonight was mainly spent relaxing, which felt really good after a hectic few days preparing for inspection. Tomorrow holds a scrimmage for baseball, as well as a reception for Plebes and their sponsors at Land Hall, which both should be a lot of fun. Stand by for further posts.

Life, Liberty, but Not Necessarily the Pursuit of Happiness

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted here. The past week has been pretty crazy. Wednesday and Thursday were spent getting ready for the weekend's many festivities. I was more fortunate than many Plebes since I was able to see my parents on Wednesday. They flew in that afternoon and made the trek out to the Academy to drop off some baseball stuff. Though the time was short, it was really good to see them. Looking back, I really don't remember what Thursday was like because it's all just a blur now. I do remember that sleep did not come in abundance that night. Because I wanted to take part in a spirit mission to commemorate September 11, I was outside writing names on cups, filling them with sand and candles, and organizing them until about 0045 or 0100. In addition to that, I had to finish a physics lab as well as a calculus assignment, which allowed me to finally sleep at 0330 and get up at 0530. Because of the lack of sleep, I was amazed at how awake I was Friday, but then again I was assisted by a ZipFizz and a 24 oz Monster and a good amount of Coke.

That morning my parents arrived at the Academy near 0900, which worked out well because I did not have class until 0955. Since it was Parents Weekend at the Academy, parents were able to accompany their children to classes when the teachers permitted it. I did not take mine to firefighting, but they were able to experience Dr. Lowell A. Cummings, the eccentric physics professor. They were able to walk around on their own Friday afternoon as I had to finish up some physics homework that was due that night. After a relaxing dinner in Delano, we walked around campus a little more until I had to change into my Whites for the Star-Spangled Banner Brigade part of Beat Retreat. SSBB was where Plebes marched all 50 state flags and I think 52 U.S. Flags onto the gym floor where the Regimental Band was performing for Beat Retreat. Once that wrapped up, I was able to say goodnight to my parents before heading back to the barracks for CTO time. The night ended with final preparations for the next day; our biggest day here so far.

The beginning of the day was not what I would have liked it to be. Somehow I managed to sleep through both of my alarms and my roommate slept through his also. This resulted in being woken up at 0729 by our CTO who was very perturbed. We all did make it down to muster for morning colors, but CTO had some stern words for all of us. After a very short amount of time given to us to clean our rooms before our parents were allowed to tour, we had to be back outside so that we could be ready for the Parade. Right on schedule we marched onto Tomb Field so that we could take our oaths to swear us into the U.S. Naval Reserve and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. I still managed to make a fool of myself by messing up my about face and almost falling over, but I didn't, so I can be thankful of that.

After our Parade, I had to be a ballboy for the soccer game against the Coast Guard Academy, so I quickly changed into PT gear, talked with my parents for a few minutes, and headed back to Tomb Field. It was a pretty long, slow game, but we ended up winning 2-0. Because the whole Coast Guard Academy came with their sports teams, our whole regiment marched onto the field with Coast Guard before the long-awaited football game. The game was epic; one for the ages. It went into two overtimes before Kings Point finally overcame and drove the ball for a touchdown to win, sending the crowd into a frenzy. The best part of the win was the fact that liberty was extended to 2100 the next day for all classes instead of 1800 for us Plebes. That was very much appreciated, as was Sunday's baseball practice being cancelled.

After a short briefing by the RTOA and RX in Ackerman Auditorium, we were granted our first liberty. I was so ready to leave this place I quickly packed my things and met my parents outside Wiley Hall so that we could call the taxi company to pick us up and take us to our hotel. The dynamic of leaving was a lot different this time than it was leaving on the Plebe Retreat. This time I knew that I could do nearly anything I wanted without fearing that someone might tell on me. After we dropped my stuff off, we walked down the street to a nearby restaurant to have an early celebration of my birthday. The food was good, but spending time with my parents was better. I finally had the stresses of the weekend off my back and I was able to relax and not focus on the Regiment. After we finished our, albeit long, dinner, we headed back to our hotel to chill for the rest of the night. I turned in just before 2300, which was the earliest in a while for me.

I woke up the next morning at 0745 more refreshed than I had been in longer than I could remember at the time. After a refreshing shower, I traveled downstairs to eat some breakfast before finalizing our plans for the day. We took a taxi to the train station in Bayside so that we could catch the 0956 train into Penn Station. From there we hopped onto the subway system to Chinatown on Canal Street so that we could find some good Dim Sum. Thankfully, it did not take us long to find a place that vividly reminded my dad of restaurants in Hong Kong. When the food started coming around, we were amazed at the excellent taste of each of the dishes. By the time we were ready to leave, my dad had no problem saying that Jing Fong was the best Dim Sum restaurant he'd found outside of Hong Kong.

In Chinatown we hopped back on the subway and rode it to Times Square. What a ridiculous sight! People see it numerous times every year on TV, but nothing compares to actually being there, looking up at the enormous billboards promoting a wide variety of products. I did not cry, as I've heard others do, but it was one of those awesome moments to say the least. From Times Square we walked past some of the off-Broadway theaters as well as Rockefeller Plaza, and the Radio City Music Hall where the MTV VMAs were being held later that night. No, I did not see Kanye and tell him to totally disrespect Taylor Swift. After passing by Radio City, we hopped back on the subway to take us back to Penn Station so that we could return to our hotel, giving us more time to hang out as a family before sending me back to the Academy.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazily watching tv and resting. That dreaded time of having to leave the hotel came way too quickly, with the last few moments spent taking pictures in my Whites by myself and with my family. Upon arriving back at the Academy after an, um, interesting taxi ride, I caught up with my friends about their weekends. Plebe Accountability Muster in Ackerman Auditorium at 2100 did not go as well as it could've. However, that reasoning may or may not be shared at a later time.

Monday started out almost as poorly as Saturday did. I managed to sleep through two alarms yet again. Thankfully it was not CTO banging on my door, but one of my classmates who informed us that all of the Plebes in First Company were waiting for us to get down to Zero Deck so that they could be dismissed. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, culminating with CFC and sports study hall.

Tuesday was quite similar in that regard, though that evening I was caught by my Company Commander talking in one of the stairways, which is one thing that we are definitely not supposed to do. I stayed up late finishing the essay that CTO assigned to me based on that incident, but not as late as some other nights.

Today, Wednesday, was pretty ordinary also, though Dr. Cummings started class 38 minutes late because he arrived to the Academy 30 minutes late. Baseball went well as did being ballboy for the soccer game. I'm looking forward to showering now and then heading to bed to get some, hopefully, decent sleep. Stand by for further posts.

Labor Day Weekend + Tuesday

It wasn't a very pleasant start for the Plebe Candidates' Labor Day weekend. It started way too early Friday morning right around 0415 so we could practice our parade for Acceptance Day. As we finished, we were notified that there was Regimental Rack-In until 0655, but I felt breakfast was more important than more sleep as I had a Physics test 4th period. The school day was a little different than normal, because we got to tour the T/V Kings Pointer for our Maritime Studies Class. Other than that it was mostly the same. Since we had our Regimental Period in the morning, our weekend officially started the beginning of 7th period, but it didn't really matter, as we still can't go anywhere.



Friday was relaxing for a little while, until we had to sign documents saying that we would live by the Academy's Honor Code of "A Midshipman will not Lie, Cheat, or Steal". We were originally supposed to go to the gym to do this, but once I was there, I found that there were only two others who were told the same. A little while later the rest of the company showed up after checking Ackerman Auditorium. After they showed up, we came to the conclusion that we needed to go to Wiley Hall, which is the old Chrysler mansion. We stood in line for a while before finally completing our task.



Once we finished with that, we had free time for the rest of the night. I went over to another old mansion, Land Hall, for the Asian-American Club. No, I'm not secretly Asian or anything; I was invited to join by the club president. It was just a time to hang out and order Chinese food if we wanted. The evening finished on a bittersweet note (as would Saturday and Sunday), because we had a muster in the gym at 2300 for Plebe Accountability.



Saturday started for us right around 0715, which was when we were told we needed our doors open, although we soon found out that we did not need to be up until 0745. After a quick gathering with the CTO, we were instructed to clean our rooms or our cleaning stations until the CTO told us we were done. Brunch followed cleaning, which was followed by a study hall in our rooms. Unfortunately, our study hall was abruptly ended by an announcement that we needed to practice our marching with rifles out on the football field. Nearly two hours of that caused many of us to become disgruntled because a few Plebe Candidates could not seem to remember some of the rifle movements that they were taught during Indoc.

We had free time until after dinner, when we formed up and marched over to the gym where we played dodgeball against Plebe Candidates from other companies. Even though we (First Co.) were labeled cheaters, we still had a lot of fun. Against CTO's orders, we failed to win the tournament, which mandated us to have our doors open at 0800 Sunday morning. Oh well, that worked out well for me as you'll see in a moment. Once we returned to the barracks, we had free time until bed.

It was a good thing that we had to be up at 0800, because that aided me in my decision to help Mom Guest set up for Bible Class as well as the curry dinner she was holding for the Plebe Candidates after the worship service. The curry dinner was outstanding. It was so great to have some non-Delano food that was homemade. After retiring to the barracks after about 8 hours at the chapel, we had free time until Mandatory Fun Night, aka movie night, where we saw Hoosiers. The rest of Sunday was fairly uninteresting as I and many others just sat in our rooms until we retired to our racks.

The start of Monday was not as smooth as either Saturday or Sunday, as some people decided that the 0730 doors open command was not to their liking, so they felt that sleeping past 0800 was a good idea. CTO was not fond of this idea at all, threatening that if anybody tested him for the rest of the day, all of our rooms would get tossed. Thankfully nobody did and our rooms stayed fairly good condition for the rest of the day. We had more marching practice in the afternoon, which thankfully did not take nearly as long as Saturday's. We concluded the day with a PKT, though I did not have to go since I had baseball practice. Baseball was pretty good. I doubt I'll make the team, but I'll give it a shot.

Tuesday wasn't too exciting. Classes went pretty smoothly. Evening held an information night about the EMT Class held during 2nd and 3rd trimesters, then went to practice for the Star Spangled Banner Brigade for about an hour and a half. The Star Spangled Banner Brigade consists of about 100 people holding state and U.S. flags marching into the gym with the band playing in front of all our parents on Friday night. It took longer than it should've, but hopefully it'll go smoother on Thursday.

I'm really hoping bed comes soon tonight. I have my first midterm tomorrow for my Maritime Studies class, which is actually a final for the Deck component of the class. On Thursday we switch over to learn about the Engine side. That should be pretty cool. Stand by for further posts...

Let's Not Do That Again...

It's been a few days since I last updated and figure it's high time. Tuesday was pretty uneventful until Army PT rolled around at 1815. The plan was to go for a cross training run: run for a bit, stop and do some exercises like push ups or flutter kicks, and then go run some more, stop again, and on and on. After our second stop we ran for a little bit more and then decided to rest for a minute at the Kings Point Park Sledding Hill before commencing jogging down the hill and sprinting back up. Because I'm a little slower than the others, I started near the back. I was just starting my second lap when I felt a prick on my leg. I figured I had just run too close to a thorn bush or something until I looked down and saw a bunch of yellow jackets around my body. Being fairly normal in not liking to get stung by yellow jackets, I started running faster trying to get back up the hill as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, they followed all of us. Probably because I am a little slower, I took the brunt of the attack as I received seven stings and others received between two and five. I found that getting stung in the back of a nearly bald head is an experience that I would like to do without for the rest of my life. In fact, I wouldn't complain if I didn't get stung again. We had a nice walk/jog back to the campus to let us calm down a bit. It ended up working out fairly well because I was able to eat and then go to CFC without having to rush too much.

Thankfully, Wednesday was not nearly as exciting. Those in my section had a test in our Maritime Studies class, which was probably the biggest event of the day. For Army PT, we lifted in the weight room which prevented us from being stung again. That was a definite plus. The evening finished with study hall, then CTO time at 2205.

Today wasn't all that eventful either. We started off the morning with an inspection of our khakis by Capt. Kim, Gunnery Sergeant Saulsberry, and the Commandant of Midshipmen wish assistance from the Midshipman Officers: Regimental Commander, Regimental Executive Officer, First Battalion Commander, and First Battalion Executive Officer. I didn't really do a whole lot of uniform prepping last night aside from shining my shoes, but the RC told me I looked "very good". Unfortunately, a couple others could not say the same as they failed the inspection. School was not all that bad with the exception of Physics, where the teacher kept us for all of the allotted two hours since we did not have a lab period this week. Two hours with that teacher is not a productive use of time. My physics teacher from a previous school could've covered the same amount of material in maybe 30-45 minutes. Oh well, I think I got a nice 10 minute or so nap without getting caught. At lunch our CTO told us that we were allowed rack-in (naptime) from after lunch until 1800. I took very good advantage of that as I napped for about three hours. Boy, did that feel good after I woke up. After an okay dinner we had CTO time, then I've been working on homework ever since.

Tomorrow will not have a very good start. I know this already. Because the upperclassmen do not want to have Acceptance Day parade practice after lunch, we are having it at 0500 on the football/soccer field, which will allow them to leave for their long weekend whenever their last class finishes. I'm not totally thrilled at waking up at 0415, but when I'm in their position, I'll likely feel the same way. Off to a shower and then bed. Stand by for further posts.