It has been some time

Well, lets see its been a while since my last post and a lot has transpired. Since my last post I have graduated from my school in Pensacola Florida, taken leave to Oregon, moved to Hawaii, and have enrolled in courses at Hawaii Pacific University. I also met an amazing girl while in Florida and had an awesome time with her and with the friends I made in my 8 months living there. I look forward to recreating a similar experience while living here in Hawaii.

I graduated from my Marine Corps A school with a 97% at the top of my class. (Bragging a little I know) I found the course material to be somewhat informative however lacking in overall competence. Memorizing a bunch of random technical specifications about a varied grouping of comm equipment really doesn't make you effective at employing and troubleshooting said pieces of equipment. I did think however the sections on networking and server administration were somewhat well spent.

I continue in short summery onto this girl that I met in A school. Her name was Tanya and she was from San Diego, she was short being half Korean and full of energy. I met her on a random date that actually wasn't too eventful, well minus the drunken ending. We went to dinner and then ended up the night at a bar near base... while at the bar my friend and I refrained from drinking too much however the girls proceeded to indulge. As the night came to a close we took the girls back to their dorms and as we where walking through the parking lot Tanya put on my coat while I was still wearing it... After laughing for a bit about it I took it off and lended it to her for the remainder of the walk back. The next day she in a bit of embarrassment returned my coat to me. After that we began to spend the remainder of our time in Florida spending the weekends camping and a trip to New Orleans etc... It was a refreshing way to finish out my last 3 months in Florida and I was glad for it.

While in Oregon I ran a bit, visited as many friends and family as possible. I started out by flying into Portland and heading down to Corvallis where I spent a week there and then proceeded to Hermiston to spend an extended amount of time with my parents while arranging some of my remaining affairs. While in Hermiston I had the opportunity to teach a quick little history class on the Marine Corps to my moms 5th grade class. The class was very responsive and paid a lot of attention to what I had to say I quizzed them at the end and passed out candy to all the individuals who answered correctly.

I have recently moved to Hawaii and have been exploring the Island only to be interrupted by the occasional work day and gaming binge. The most interesting place I have been so far is a series of waterfalls outside of Kailua that are a short hike into the mountains. They are fairly entertaining to jump off of being only about 45 feet in height. I have also been getting licensed on a range of military vehicles that I find large and cumbersome.

In other news I have recently been reading extensively on entrepreneurship and its effect on the economy. which reignited my thoughts on finishing my degree so I went down to the Joint Education Center here on base and applied at Hawaii Pacific University, I was surprised with how fast my approval to the school was processed but considering they work closely with the Marine Corps I guess there shouldn't have been any surprise. I declared my major in Business Admin Computer Information Systems and take my first class this may. The course I selected was Human Resource Management 3400 should be a good course and it is an accelerated term so I plan on putting forth a fairly high level of focus and energy to hopefully build momentum going into finishing the rest of my degree.

Physical fitness: while all this has transpired I have also been working on my physical fitness. I have been seeing fairly decent results, having a lower body fat percentage and achieving higher max lifts across the board. However I do feel like improvements could have been made at a faster pace I am satisfied with my current progress and aim to do more.

In summery I would say the last months of absence have been spent in a major effort to improve my self and maximize my life. however there has been too little self reflection during that course of time and although it is pretty cliche to write this I am going to make more of an effort to keep this blog up to date. It is something fairly near and dear to me even if it is only a collection of ramblings it is still a piece of my conscience written in plain view and stored for later reflection.

Filling in the Gaps

Since my last post a lot has happened in my life... I joined the United States premier fighting force known only as the Marine Corps yes the same corps that so many movies are made about the same corps that all mothers dread their sons growing up and joining. I joined that Corps and since my life has never been the same.

It all started one evening sitting in my room at the University of Oregon. I remember sitting there with my laptop on one side and my desktop on the other, starring into my monitor screen wondering to myself what I was going to do with my life in the next 2 to 4 years. I had another 4-5 terms of college left to go and no motivation to follow through on finishing those terms with passing grades. I had hit an extreme low in my life when it came to motivation... I had direction that was the easy part I had my whole remaining career at school figured out the only issue was that I had no desire in carrying out that plan. Where was the source of this downturn what was the cause? I could probably speculate for a long time some might say it was the drinking and the partying. You might even speculate a sincere level of procrastination and laziness had come upon me. However the source is probably much deeper than that... I believe it was out of fear, fear that I would become something ordinary something normal.

All that doesn't matter know because that night I started looking up information on the Marine Corps website and studying up on all sorts of information about what they had to offer. I looked up several other branches as well but something stuck with me about the USMC they proudly displayed that they were different, that they were a cut above the rest. Now whether or not the Marine Corps is actually better then the other services is and argument that has been around for centuries and will continue for many more. About a week later I walked into a recruiting station in Eugene, Oregon. There I began to work with SSGT Tommy Choe on putting together my enlistment package. Tommy carried himself pretty well and had a good head about him. This came as somewhat of a surprise because I assumed that all marines where jarheads without much intelligence about them however I quickly saw that this wasn't so. While talking to Choe I began to realize that there was a side of the Marine Corps that I could actually identify with. Not more than a few weeks later I went up to MEPS Portland and enlisted in the DEP program.

On February 23rd I shipped to MCRD San Diego for boot camp... The rest is history, I only have a few things to say on the matter. 1. If you want to hate your life for a good 2-3 weeks go. 2. If you want to find yourself silently amused by the most random things and periodically question your sanity then go. 3. If you want to experience regaining your freedom after 3 months then go. (There is no experience like it, It is one of the few times in a Marines career where he will shed a tear or two)

After being released from boot camp I had 17 days of leave... with which I spent fairly productively hanging out with friends and family across Oregon.

On June 9th however I reported in to SOI West at Camp Pendleton Calif. I admit I was worried that I was in for another episode of MCRD. However Ill explain my relief in my next post.

Bland Text

I recently moved down to Eugene a little more than a week and a half ago. Main reason for the move was the upcoming term at University of Oregon, however I also moved early to gain an edge on the employment market here in Eugene. During my first few days in Eugene I applied at several places of Employment one of them being an Information Services job that really struck me as a challenge.

I applied for the job and got it. Pretty excited about where it will go.

Ive also been biking alot of late something that keeps me fairly entertained...

Then life changed... Why? why did it changed because I decided it would change. Because for some reason I couldn't continue my existence as the person I was becoming. I wasn't becoming anything horrible, I was a college student with a good job. Taking some courses I was interested in and some that I just needed. I had a group of friends that did some pretty amazing things. By no means was my life boring nor was it horribly destructive. We would throw massive parties at our house almost as if we were trying to prove something to each other and to ourselves. I mean I had fun but it definitely felt like there was more to it. Curtis and me quickly became the beer barons of the UO. It was somewhat thrilling and adventurous for a time. There is nothing like picking up and moving 2500 servings of beer and then watching it disappear in the course of a night. Beyond just the partying, drinking and girls there was my Tokyo cyberpunk class that provided me with philosophical enticement. Everything from transcendence (human evolution) to what makes us human or sentient beings. All of these experiances I shared with my room mates which provided a sense of comradery whether or not mutual I will never know. but i sure think so.

Something however didn't sit right with me somehow this lifestyle that was extremely enjoyable I didnt see lasting. I am not sure why but I subconsciously was wanting to make sure it couldn't continue to exist. So I began to set out on my path of self destruction. From trying to drink myself into failure to just plain not going to class. I am not entirely sure why I would do it but it continued to fail cause my conscious always made sure that I was maintaining high enough grades to pass. However in the end my way out of this whole mess was to join the Marine Corps which may not make sense to most. I understand that but perhaps I just felt like I needed something to create structure for a while untill I figure somethings out. I am not sure what to expect from my time in the Military but I do know that 5 years is a short time and that my life is longer and shorter than I can comprehend. My carnal nature seems to have alot of anxieties about the whole ordeal but my mind sees things in alot longer terms. My main thing that I am going to struggle with is operating on the Militaries schedule. I throughout most of my life I have always lived by my own schedule and bent both work and school around what I needed or wanted to do. Not that I am lazy just that I prioritize things differently than most.

Well I have been rambeling a bit but that is exactly what this blog is for. It is a way for me to collect and distribute thoughts. that I might not otherwise communicate... not that the i dont want to communicate the content directly more so becuase I dont care to filter, edit, crop, restructure, format, and compile it in a traditional norm. aka sentences (complete thoughts)? which I for some reason must not have... because if I write off the top of my head using my thoughts they always seem to come out in fragments... maybe there is somebody else who has the other halves of my thoughts or maybe I am just a half thought kind of person. That or i create runons that are never correctly puncuated or conjucted and annoy the hell out of my proffessors and teachers.

Reading List,
An Economic Policy for today and tommorrow - Ludwig Von Mises
The Revolution - Ron Paul