Scattered Thoughts

Yeah! I’m 3/8 of the way through this course.

Today we took the Block 3 test. Everyone passed which was most important. Second most important is that we beat our brother class as far as class average. Theirs was 90 percent and ours was 93 percent. Third most important is that I aced the dang test! Woot!

We finished the test before 9 a.m. and did nothing afterward except clean the classroom, fill out a course survey, and then talk, talk, talk. We also met our instructor for Block 4. Mr. Dickey seems pretty nice. It should be a good class.

One thing that happened that my WoW friends will be able to appreciate (I think)… after the tests were done (every Block of students tests on the same day) I went to the ladies room where I saw three young female airmen. We talked about our scores (we all passed). I said, “Ding! We leveled up! Grats! ”

Yeah… well they looked at me like I had three heads. I slinked (slunked?) into a stall and did my business.

After school I jogged over to the pool and swam for about 30 minutes. Then I walked back to the base and went to the commissary for a few things. Back to my room to put the groceries away and then back out again to do a mid-week load of laundry.

My plan was to spend a few hours playing WoW (World of Warcraft) tonight since I don’t have to study but I find the time has just disappeared. I can’t believe it’s almost 8 p.m. already.

Oh… just remembered… I also spent about 30 minutes talking with a friend from home. It was a wonderful surprise call and it was great to catch up with the news in her life.

So now I have to decide if I want to play WoW for an hour or so or just relax and watch a movie. Hmmmm… not sure what I’ll do. WoW sounds good, but it’s been so long since I played that it may take all my play time to figure out “how” to play again.

Or maybe I’ll just crawl into bed and read some more of my book. Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Hugs,

–Donna

Block 3 is almost over. Today was day 8 of 9 and we had a lot to accomplish. First we took two appraisals. I scored 14/15 on one of them and 7/8 on the other. Not too shabby.

Next we practiced for the progress check we’d be having later in the morning. This progress check (these are the pass/fail quizzes) was on signal flow and patching/rerouting a signal around down equipment. There were 5 patches we had to know AND be able to explain.

I’d give you an example, but it would take too long to write it out and you’d just skip over it anyway because it wouldn’t make any sense to you. And if it does make sense, then you’ve been through this tech school program and already know what I’m talking about.

One thing that was surprising and somewhat amusing to me though was that SSgt Traficante asked me if I wanted to have an escort in the room while I took the progress check.

“Huh?” I asked. I didn’t get what he meant.

“Well…” he explained as if I were an idiot (and yes, I felt like one after he explained it to me), “since you’re female and I’m male, you might not feel comfortable being alone in the room with me. So if you’d like someone in here with us, that isn’t a problem.”

I laughed and assured him that I felt totally safe being alone with him, and I was equally sure that I could put him down if he got out of line. ha ha ha

Then I told the airmen (all male) in my class that if any of them didn’t feel comfortable being alone with SSgt Traficante that I was willing to serve as their bodyguards. It was pretty funny.

Yeah… guess you had to be there.

The progress check took quite awhile to complete. Everyone had 30 minutes to do it, but no one took that long. Everyone passed. Still it was just after 1 p.m. (we started at 9:30 a.m.) when we finished.

At some point SSgt Traficante asked if anyone wanted to make a *brag* bet for tomorrow’s Block 3 test. Some of the airmen started talking smack about beating each others scores and doing pushups for any missed questions, etc. Then they asked me what I promised for a grade and what I was willing to bet.

Now before I tell you what I bet I need to back up a bit… earlier in the day we somehow got on the subject of haircuts. I made the comment that I’ve always wanted to shave my head. This earned a round of laughter and gasps of horror. But it’s true. It’s only hair and I’ve been curious about what it would feel like and look like to shave my head.

Fast forward to the afternoon when we are predicting our test results and placing bets (I bet you know where this is going, don’t you??)

SSgt Traficante writes on the board, “SSgt Doyon will shave her head if she scores less than 100 percent.”

“Ha ha,” I said. “I don’t agree to that. But I will predict that I’ll miss no more than 3 questions. And if I miss more than 3 questions I will shave my head.”

I don’t think anyone believed that I was serious, but I assured them that I was/am. Unfortunately, after the laughter died down, we had to think seriously about the ramifications of this bet.

You see I’m owned by Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam tells me what I can do with my hair. SSgt Traficante didn’t think shaving my head would be an option, but we’d have to check the regulation for it. So I said that I’d cut my hair as short as I could if I missed more than 3 questions.

As we were leaving for the day, the airmen told me to just relax tonight and have a few drinks. ha ha ha I think they want to see me bald. OR see if I’d follow through with paying up.

I did check the regulations when I got back to my room (it’s so sweet to have the internet working!) and I cannot shave my head or go real short on the sides or have a flat top style. My hair needs to be at least 1 inch long. I guess shaving my head will have to wait until my 60th birthday when I’ve retired from the Air National Guard.

That just makes it another goal to achieve at a later date, that’s all.

Okay, I probably should do some studying now. Wish me luck on tomorrow’s test!

Hugs,

–Donna

Hey there! How are things going in your world?

Today was a typical Monday. I didn’t want to get out of bed but I did. I didn’t want to wear blues, but I did. I didn’t want to stand in front of the class and explain signal flow through our in-class tech control facility, but I did. Some days are just perfect to serve as Mondays.

School was actually very interesting today. It was, as Mr. Hunter (my block 1 and 2 instructor who is now a student in our block 3 class) put it… “An all meat day with no bread.” Very tasty and filling.

Today we started learning about patching circuits through, around, and over broken pieces of equipment. It is actually pretty nifty how we can reroute a circuit to bypass problems.

Let’s remember that my job in the Air National Guard will be (is) to keep communications lines (telephones, internet, etc.) up and running. Sometimes we take these circuits for granted. We think they just work and most of the time they do. But when something goes wrong, worse things happen than me not getting to play World of Warcraft.

In the real world weapons systems need to be monitored and managed, unmanned crafts need to be communicated with, telephone calls about terrorist activities need to be received over encrypted lines, etc. Sometimes I forget how important this job really is.

And by the way… the problem with my in-room modem is the type of problem that we’d need to resolve. Don’t know why it took over a month for my problem to be resolved, but… this is the type of thing that we’d have to address.

Anyway… when a piece of equipment, cable, or other problem causes communications circuits to fail, my job is to solve the problem. One thing that we sometimes have to do is reroute the circuit to get it working while we fix the actual problem. So that is what we learned today. How to reroute a circuit.

We learned five different scenarios, each with its own patching solution. After SSgt Traficante went over the patching set ups, we (the students) had to regurgitate them back to the class. Tomorrow we will each have to regurgitate all five scenarios before we do a progress check on them. SSgt Traficante already warned us that tomorrow will be jam packed with stuff to do.

Today I really appreciated my Toastmasters (public speaking) training. I feel very comfortable and confident giving presentations on topics I know. It has been very bizarre giving mini-presentations on these new pieces of equipment and processes. I don’t feel confident and it shows in my delivery. Today SSgt Traficante started teasing me because my hands were visibly shaking as I pointed to different pieces of equipment. Because I am confident in my speaking abilities, I was able to just laugh it off rather than feel self-conscious about it. And we won’t talk about how red my face got.

After class I had group PT. We did about 20 minutes of stretching and calisthenics and then were told to just do some running. The area around our school building has some hazards near it so we didn’t just run there like we usually do. I ran for about 40 minutes before calling it good.

I got back to my room, called home, then showered. And now, I look at the clock and see that it’s already 6 p.m. Wow. Time sure does fly.

Tonight I’ll be studying (my big block test is on Wednesday) and watching some TV. I have leftover pizza for dinner so I guess this hasn’t been a total wash for a Monday.

I hope you had a great Monday, too!

Hugs,

–Donna

Hi All,

I’ve heard from several of you that you’ve written comments to some of my posts but then those comments were never posted. Sorry about that!

Here’s the deal… I typically get about 100 comments a day. Most of these are spam and that’s why they need to be moderated. Until the other day my internet connection was so flaky I couldn’t check the comments on a daily basis to see if any were valid. When I did get online there would be 200-300 comments for me to look at. Basically I just quickly scrolled through the comments and did a mass delete for all the spam ones. As I found valid comments I approved them on an individual basis.

Apparently I missed some valid comments and deleted them by mistake.

I do apologize for this. I appreciate that you’re reading and commenting on the happenings here in Mississippi. Now that my internet connection is fixed (I got a new modem in my room), comments won’t pile up like they were and it will be easier to review them.

So please keep posting your comments and I’ll pay closer attention to them and approve them more quickly.

Hugs,

–Donna

Although I know that I’m here in Mississippi to learn a new job skill… sometimes the last thing I want to do is study. So today I exercised my right to avoid studying. (We won’t mention the fact that this was a three day weekend and I didn’t study on either Friday or Saturday.)

So if you want to avoid studying… here are five fun-filled and exciting activities you can do instead:

1. Do your laundry.
2. Run for 30-45 minutes.
3. Shave your legs (unless you’re a guy… then just shave your face)
4. Update your blog.
5. Eat fistfuls of chocolate chips.

By participating in activity #5, you actually get a bonus study-avoidance opportunity. If you push the limit of your chocolate endurance, you may make yourself nauseous enough that you need to rest and recover before you can focus on studying. And for those of you that are wondering why you can’t snack on chocolate chips while studying… pul-ease… we wouldn’t want to leave chocolate smudges on our textbooks, would we??

Unfortunately, the guilt finally kicks in and the studying must be done. Perhaps “guilt” is the wrong word. Perhaps “panic” is better. When you realize how much material there is to review with still more new material to be covered/learned on Monday and the BIG test taking place on Wednesday…

Yeah… you see what I’m getting at. Eventually you reach the point where you know you can’t put off the studying any longer.

I haven’t quite reached that point yet.

I have gotten started though by reviewing the first two units. It’s familiar and makes sense. It seems like some of the stuff was learned weeks or years ago though. I look at it now and think, “What? I just learned this 6 days ago? How is that possible?”

Tomorrow we’ll be taking another appraisal or two as well as a progress check on patching. Not sure what that is or what it entails at this point. But I’m confident that SSgt Traficante will explain it well. He really is a great teacher.

Okay… I should get back to studying now. But thanks for giving me the chance to avoid studying for a little while. It helps to take a break every now and then.

Hugs,

–Donna

Sometimes it pays to complain. I hate to do it, but sometimes it’s the only way to get satisfaction.

What do I have to complain about? Nothing, really… Except…

The internet connection in my room.

You’ve noticed that I’ve stopped complaining about getting up at 4:30 a.m. I’ve even gotten better about having to wear blues on Mondays. But one thing that has been ticking me off is the lack of a reliable internet connection in my room.

And in the grand scheme of things I know that this is a small thing and not worthy of harping on… but doggone it… I like my internet!

Rather than bore you with the details as I usually do… I’ll just tell you that I finally got a new modem in my room and things are working beautifully now. I haven’t had to repair or disable/enable my connection once since the modem was replaced on Friday. You can’t imagine the joy I felt when I opened my web browser and my home page *miraculously* appeared. It was a beautiful thing, my friends. Here… let me wipe a tear of joy from eye even as I remember that warm feeling I got upon seeing that beautiful Google screen.

Now I’ll be checking my e-mail daily and should have some clue of what’s going on in Hollywood once again. What *have* Britney, Paris, and Lindsey been up to these past weeks?

Okay, enough of that…

It was a three-day weekend for me. It was pretty good, pretty uneventful except for the top of the ratings news I already shared with you above.

On Friday I got up early to watch the Drill Down competition between the training squadrons. This is an opportunity for the airmen who came here directly from Basic Training to show off their marching skills. It’s all volunteer based so some squads were larger than others. Each squadron had two drill teams. One did basic marching commands and the other used the rifles for a bit of razzle dazzle. My training squadron did pretty well. We took 2nd place in basic marching, 3rd place in the rifles event, and then 3rd place overall.

On Friday I also spent time with Travis. We are on the countdown to watching the TV series Jericho. We started watching shortly after we met, then took a break to watch all of season 1 of Lost. Now we have some catching up to do. Travis leaves in just over a week so we don’t have much time to watch the rest of the show. I don’t know if we’ll get through the whole thing or not.

Saturday was also spent with Travis watching Jericho. We took a break to watch Treasure Planet, an animated movie like Treasure Island with a dash of Peter Pan in it. It was pretty cute. Then because he had access to a vehicle we went to see a double feature at the movies. We saw the new James Bond movie (excellent) and Eagle Eye (also excellent).

We saw the James Bond movie with a man and his wife that are in Travis’ class. This is actually the man that let Travis borrow his car. So that was nice. They didn’t want to see the second movie (well, Dawn, the wife did, but Rob couldn’t deal with sitting down for another 2 hours). So we agreed to meet up later to go out for dinner. We headed back to The Shed. I can’t believe I keep going back to the place. Luckily the food never disappoints. ha ha

It was pretty cold out (relatively speaking) so they had a fire going outside. My clothes got a bit smoky though but the alternative was turning into a Donna-sycle which wouldn’t be a good thing.

The band was excellent and we actually stayed for the whole show. I got home at around 10:30 p.m. I was pretty pooped. My feet were pretty well frozen, so I wrapped them in a blanket and wore socks to bed trying to get them warm. Oh Gerry, what I wouldn’t have given to have that electric blanket down here with me.

This morning I woke up with the intention of going for a long run. Yeah… well, I stepped outside to see what the temperature was and decided it was too cold to run before the sun came up. I climbed back into bed (yes, my feet had finally warmed up) and went back to sleep. Forgot to reset my alarm clock and barely had enough time to get ready for chapel.

Chapel and the socializing afterward were great as usual. I got home at around 10:30 or so and knew I should open my school books to do some studying. But then I remembered that I needed to go pay my room fees and get another book from the library. So I did those things and now I should eat some lunch.

I’ll study this afternoon.

Hugs,

–Donna

12 Nov 2008 / Block 3 / Day 5 of 9

What day is it… Wednesday?

I’m so confused…

This lack of connectivity (internet) is driving me bonkers. I feel so cut off from the world. Some days the connection in my room works, some days it doesn’t. I do have the option to go to the library, but sometimes that just isn’t convenient.

I just posted my entry for my Saturday road trip. I haven’t written anything since then so I’m not sure what I’ve done. One thing I haven’t done is run (much). I skipped my long run this weekend. I ran for an hour on Monday after school. I also ran today (Wednesday) for about 30 minutes.

===================

Sunday… Sunday… what did I do on Sunday?

I think I sat around my room all day eating Bon Bons and watching TV. Nothing else really comes to mind for that day.

Monday… School… blues… Need I say more? Okay, I’ll check my notes to see if I wrote down anything of interest…

Nope… We did a progress check on configuring a piece of equipment. Progress checks are just a pass or fail thing. Everyone in my class passed. Then we learned about modems and DSU/CSUs. Yeah… I don’t know what they are either.

I still had the rental car so I went off base to get a pizza for dinner. Yum yum… I got a BBQ chicken and bacon and pineapple. Also got an order of garlic parmesan bread. Did I mention yum? Did I also mention that I’m going to need to run a gazillion miles to burn off that one meal?

===================

Tuesday was Veteran’s Day! No school! Thanks to all our Veterans! We live in a great country and we wouldn’t have it if it wasn’t for our military folk (and their supportive families).

I watched Lost for most of the day. I opted to turn in my rental car early to save myself some money. I was going to go to a movie, but nothing really appealed to me. So I just hung around base (and ate pizza for dinner).

I was in such a “zone” of nothingness (I also took a nap) that I almost forgot to call home.
Oops!

==================

Wednesday

School… Day 5 of 9…

Here are the highlights…

When I first arrived my instructor told me went to a Game Stop store yesterday and saw a very cool looking $100 World of Warcraft computer mouse. He even took a picture of it to show me. ha ha ha

On Monday he was answering questions in class and just randomly said, “I can’t believe Sergeant Doyon is a gamer.” It was so funny.

I do have to admit that I don’t feel worthy of that title though. I’m such a casual gamer that it just doesn’t seem right to bestow that lofty title upon me. But then again, female gamers are not that common, and older female gamers are even more rare… so I guess I should just wear it with pride.

In the morning, after taking a progress check on the FCD-1L (everyone passed), we talked about my instructor’s fear of spiders. I don’t recall how we got on the subject but everyone seems to have spider stories. Hearing these stories made me long for home. After all, we don’t have black widow spiders up there. But I’ll still de-spider the winter boots before I put them on!

After school I went for a short run. It was very humid and I wanted time to catch up on my blog entries. My in-room internet has been driving me crazy as usual, but it’s getting the job done. I’m trying to get the modem box swapped out but no one from guest services is returning my calls.

And yes, while it’s extremely frustrating, I also don’t have too too much time to be online so that’s one of the reasons I haven’t really pitched a fit so far. But I think that as the days get shorter and cooler I’ll be in my room more in the afternoons and on the weekends, so I’ll definitely want the internet to be working better.

Well, that’s it for my news. I hope all is well with you!

Hugs,

–Donna

12 Nov 2008 / Block 3 / Day 5 of 9

What day is it… Wednesday?

I’m so confused…

This lack of connectivity (internet) is driving me bonkers. I feel so cut off from the world. Some days the connection in my room works, some days it doesn’t. I do have the option to go to the library, but sometimes that just isn’t convenient.

I just posted my entry for my Saturday road trip. I haven’t written anything since then so I’m not sure what I’ve done. One thing I haven’t done is run (much). I skipped my long run this weekend. I ran for an hour on Monday after school. I also ran today (Wednesday) for about 30 minutes.

===================

Sunday… Sunday… what did I do on Sunday?

I think I sat around my room all day eating Bon Bons and watching TV. Nothing else really comes to mind for that day.

Monday… School… blues… Need I say more? Okay, I’ll check my notes to see if I wrote down anything of interest…

Nope… We did a progress check on configuring a piece of equipment. Progress checks are just a pass or fail thing. Everyone in my class passed. Then we learned about modems and DSU/CSUs. Yeah… I don’t know what they are either.

I still had the rental car so I went off base to get a pizza for dinner. Yum yum… I got a BBQ chicken and bacon and pineapple. Also got an order of garlic parmesan bread. Did I mention yum? Did I also mention that I’m going to need to run a gazillion miles to burn off that one meal?

===================

Tuesday was Veteran’s Day! No school! Thanks to all our Veterans! We live in a great country and we wouldn’t have it if it wasn’t for our military folk (and their supportive families).

I watched Lost for most of the day. I opted to turn in my rental car early to save myself some money. I was going to go to a movie, but nothing really appealed to me. So I just hung around base (and ate pizza for dinner).

I was in such a “zone” of nothingness (I also took a nap) that I almost forgot to call home.
Oops!

==================

Wednesday

School… Day 5 of 9…

Here are the highlights…

When I first arrived my instructor told me went to a Game Stop store yesterday and saw a very cool looking $100 World of Warcraft computer mouse. He even took a picture of it to show me. ha ha ha

On Monday he was answering questions in class and just randomly said, “I can’t believe Sergeant Doyon is a gamer.” It was so funny.

I do have to admit that I don’t feel worthy of that title though. I’m such a casual gamer that it just doesn’t seem right to bestow that lofty title upon me. But then again, female gamers are not that common, and older female gamers are even more rare… so I guess I should just wear it with pride.

In the morning, after taking a progress check on the FCD-1L (everyone passed), we talked about my instructor’s fear of spiders. I don’t recall how we got on the subject but everyone seems to have spider stories. Hearing these stories made me long for home. After all, we don’t have black widow spiders up there. But I’ll still de-spider the winter boots before I put them on!

After school I went for a short run. It was very humid and I wanted time to catch up on my blog entries. My in-room internet has been driving me crazy as usual, but it’s getting the job done. I’m trying to get the modem box swapped out but no one from guest services is returning my calls.

And yes, while it’s extremely frustrating, I also don’t have too too much time to be online so that’s one of the reasons I haven’t really pitched a fit so far. But I think that as the days get shorter and cooler I’ll be in my room more in the afternoons and on the weekends, so I’ll definitely want the internet to be working better.

Well, that’s it for my news. I hope all is well with you!

Hugs,

–Donna

10 Nov 2008 / Saturday

What do you do on a beautiful fall day in Mississippi? Two words… ROAD TRIP!!!

Yes, I rented a car (it felt so weird to be behind the wheel after a month of hoofing it) for the weekend. It was a bare bones Chevy Cobalt. Power nothing… it might just as well have been a Ferrari for all the power I felt sitting behind the wheel.

I picked it up at lunch time on Friday and planned to leave for Pensacola, Florida early on Saturday. Why Pensacol? People have told me the beaches there are amazing. The sand is white. The water is emerald green. I thought a Florida beach would be a good destination. Who cares if it would take me about 2.5 hours to get there. What else did I have to do on a Saturday?

My plan was to go alone… you know… me… myself… and I… I figured the three of us would have a wonderful time together.

But sometimes things just don’t work out the way you planned. Do you want the long or short version? The long one? Sweet!

Here goes…

On Friday afternoon I dropped by my friend Travis’ room. He’s the man from Washington state that I hang out with quite often. I knew his class had a block test that day so I wanted to see how they all did (they all passed). He told me that it had been a really stressful week for them all. He’d also been sick last weekend and that misery hung on throughout the week.

We talked about our plans for the weekend (his were to stay in his room, play games, and watch Star Trek DVDs). I told him I planned to drive to Florida. His eyes lit up a bit. He was one of the ones that told me how great Pensacola is. He’d been stationed there for a few years when he was active duty.

So… knowing he’d had a rough week, I asked if he wanted to go to Florida with me. He said yes, so I had a traveling companion.

We left at around 9 a.m. on Saturday morning (no, I didn’t do my long run that morning). We stopped in Mobile, Alabama (didn’t know we’d even crossed into Alabama since I missed the big “Welcome to” sign) to see a couple of IMAX movies at a kiddie exploration museum. I’ve never seen an IMAX movie before. They were both pretty cool. Bigger than big screen, that’s for sure. If you haven’t seen an IMAX movie, give it a try. It’s definitely a new experience.

It was fun wandering around the kiddie science museum too. They had hands on displays like a harp with no strings, only beams of light that when broken played notes (this was my favorite activity). I had a hard time with the right brain / left brain (no brain) activities like tracing a star pattern using its reflection in a mirror.

We went to Subway between IMAX movies (each lasted about an hour) and ate our sandwiches in a park. We wondered what the park turned in to after dark… looked like it had a lot of possibilities for illicit activities. But during the day it was very pretty and inviting. There were about a gazillion squirrels running around. I have never seen so many squirrels in one place before. Of course I shared my Freetos with them. One put his paws on the park bench trying to get the bag. They certainly have no fear of humans.

We continued driving to Florida (I did see the Welcome to Florida sign). Rather than stopping in Pensacola, we drove a bit further (farther?) east to Destin, Florida. This is where Travis was stationed and he knew of a beautiful beach for me to see. It was supposed to be open to military folk only.

We got there at around 3 p.m. and the sun was low on the horizon. I took my shoes off to walk the beach and loved the feel of the very fine sand between my gnome toes. I took a few steps and then stopped. I listened. I took a few more steps… stopped… listened. I looked at Travis and laughed.

“Is the sand squeaking?” I asked.

He laughed at me. Yes, he really laughed at me. Didn’t he know who was giving him a ride back to Mississippi???

I walked a few more steps, twisting my feet in the sand and then did some foot dragging and heel walking to see how squeaky the sand really was. It was amazing! I ran a bit like a little kid and then I’d stop and giggle. How cool is squeaky sand??

Okay, you may have experienced the childlike delight of squeaky sand and now you know that I have. So I’ll move on to the water…

It was gorgeous… clear… green… warm… I waded into the water up to my knees and wished I’d brought a suit so I could go swimming. Oh well… I really didn’t think the water or day would be warm enough for that so I wasn’t prepared. Next time.

There were these cute little birds walking on the beaches. I asked Travis if he knew what type of birds they were. He paused just a beat too long before saying, “It’s a walkabeacha bird.”

Ha ha ha ha

Later we saw some larger birds that we called runabeacha birds. We probably should have called them sitabeacha birds since most of them were sitting on this strip of sand that reached out into the water. They were all facing the setting sun. It was picture perfect. Unfortunately it’s a picture I’ll have to keep in my memory since I didn’t have my camera phone with me (dingy me… I left it in the car.).

We hung out at the beach for about 2 hours before heading back to the car.

Travis knew of a good Irish pub not far from the beach so we went there for dinner. The place was called McGuires Irish Pub. To say that it had flavor, is an understatement. First, the smokehouse for their meats is out in front of the restaurant.

Once inside the restaurant you immediately get the sense that you are standing beneath a Chia pet. Perhaps a Chia restaurant. You see there are $1 bills hanging from the ceiling. Everywhere. It’s estimated that there is about 1/2 million dollars there. The tradition started when the owner tacked her first $1 tip to the ceiling and friends and customers have been adding to the decor ever since.

Yes, I put a dollar on the wall. The wait staff even has a Sharpie marker for people to use. I wrote my trademark “Imagine. Believe. Become.” on my dollar.

This restaurant is full of puns and funnies. For instance… when you go to the restroom, the sign says Ladies… but does it really?? The biggest word is “Ladies” but if you read the small print you’ll see something like “I know you like the LADIES, but this is the mens room.” The sign on the ladies room is similar. When I went to the ladies room, Travis paused or hesitated or something because my guard was up but I didn’t know for what. I started for the Ladies (actually Mens) room. Our waitress stopped me and pointed me in the right direction.

She laughed and said she wasn’t supposed to tell customers but that she liked me. Ha ha ha I told her that my appreciation would be reflected in her tip. Yup… I coughed up a 30 percent tip for that one. I should mention that there are two entry doors to the restrooms. Inside the first one (wrong label) is another one that says “Stop! This is the XX room.” But to be honest, I probably would have just blown past it because I really needed to pee!

After dinner we began the long drive home. Travis helped me find the way to Rte 10 and then he fell asleep for the next 2+ hours. Once again I missed the state of Alabama. I’m going to have to make a special trip just to see the sign. I woke Travis up as we neared Biloxi so that he could help me find my way back to the base. He drifted off again and so I missed the turn I needed to take. Oh well. We finally got back at around 9:30 p.m.

All in all it was a fantastic day!

One thing I forgot to mention… I saw antlers mounted on the back of a motorcycle. Travis reminded me that I am in the south. If I had any doubts, that confirmed it. ha ha

Hugs,

–Donna

6 November 2008 / Block 3 / Day 2 of 9

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I’ve not grumbled about the insanely early hour that my alarm clock rings off each morning. Perhaps you thought it was because I was tired of complaining about it. Or perhaps you thought I cared that you were tired of my whining about it.

In fact, none of those things are true. Dare I even write that I seem to have become a morning person? I know this is blasphemous language. I understand that I’ve totally lost the respect and admiration of many of you by confessing this change of heart and lifestyle. My past philosophy that mornings were best enjoyed at the end of the day has been replaced. Yes, I’ve become a kinder, gentler person when it comes to admiring the beauty of God’s world before the sun rises.

Let me go further and unburden the true depth of my conversion. Let me confess… I’ve actually been setting my alarm clock for 4:30 a.m. to give myself an extra 15 minutes of peace before heading off to school. There… I said it… forgive me… and please don’t hold this against me.

Ahhhh… it feels so much better to unburden your soul.

On to news of the day…

We took two appraisals first thing this morning. I missed one question each. Not too bad.

One thing I didn’t mention yesterday was that SSgt Traficante is sick. He shared way too much information about the pounding sinuses, phlegm levels, and snot build-up. He held up a roll of industrial paper towels and assured us that he’d finish the roll before the end of the day. I am happy to say that he fell short on that promise, but today he did mention several times how raw his nose felt. Duh! I wonder why? Hasn’t he heard of tissues before?

Anyway… many of us in class are dealing with minor symptoms of colds. I have a bit of a sniffle but I brought tissues to class to protect my delicate nose.

I realized I left out some important information on my new instructor, SSgt Traficante (yes, besides the levels of green bodily fluids)… he worked in this career field for 9 years before becoming an instructor so he has some real world stories to share with us.

He also shared some tech control philosophies that are important for us to know, remember, and honor. Here are a few of them:

1) We are “Water Walkers” (our logo shows Snoopy walking on a wave). There is a reason for this. Do not let other people forget it.

2) The problem is always at the distant end (not our fault… even if it is).

3) When there is no other explanation, blame it on solar flares.

4) We are geeks and proud of it.

5) Tech controllers only hang around with tech controllers because we are better than everyone else (not because we are geeks and no one wants to hang around us).

SSgt Traficante struts and shows true pride in this career field. And I have to say… the tech controllers back in Maine show the same pride (and cockiness?). I think I’m gonna like it.

One other thing that happened yesterday was that SSgt Traficante asked if any of us were gamers. The entire class turned and looked at me! SSgt Traficante looked at me and smiled. “Really?”

I shrugged and nodded (and yes, blushed, I’m sure).

It’s not like I’m a hard core gamer. I’m very casual in my playing time, effort, and skills. Gerry buys armor for my gaming characters because I never think to do it. But I guess I’m such a novelty in that way, that a little means a lot. I can bluff my way through a conversation because I know enough gamer lingo since I heard Gerry, Beth and Sean use it.

So…

Would you like to know what we learned today? We learned about the importance of timing and synchronization in communications circuits.

What is timing and synchronization you ask? Amazingly, I just happen to know the answer to that question!

“Timing is the regular rhythmic reocurrence of a clocking pulse at a predetermined rate.”

“Synchronization is what occurs when the receive equipment can find its place in the data bit stream.”

You may be wondering how I came to learn this information. First, SSgt Traficante told us the definitions. Then he told us where we’d find them in our books. Then he asked all nine students to repeat the definitions. Then, as he moved on to other new material, he would occasionally stop speaking, call out a student’s name and say, “What is the definition of timing and synchronization.”

So yes, we’ve all learned what timing and synchronization are. It’s an important thing to remember when doing this job. Timing may be everything, but without synchronization, it’s nothing.

After school I came back to my room with the intention of going for a run. You know what they say about good intentions… we’ll just leave it at that.

My internet has been working a bit today, but I feel like I’m being teased. It works for a bit then the connection fails again. I restore it, and it works for a bit, then it’s gone. If it was completely gone I would have packed up and headed over to the library. But it’s just enough to keep me hanging on. Rather like when you’re in a bad relationship and you’re ready to dump the guy, then he does something “sweet” like bring you a bouquet of flowers he grabbed after someone’s funeral.

~sigh~

So I guess I’ll just stay in and record Survivor and watch some Stargate SG-1. I’ve got most of my studying done for the night so I should be able to just relax. I’ll probably finish reading John Grisham’s The Broker tonight. The next book I’ll be reading for relaxation is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I may have read it before (or I’m pretty sure Gerry has).

Well, I guess that’s all I have to say about anything for today.

I hope you are well!

Hugs,

–Donna