Originally published at an attempt.. Please leave any comments there.

Back on LI for the next few weeks… be here until early July, then off to Fort Benning, Home of the Infantry, for two weeks, hopefully graduating from the Army Air Assault School. Nice.

Nice being home, nice seeing a bunch of people. While where was a bit of drama here and there, things are starting to calm down and I’m getting a bit more comfortable with each day. Just finding my place back here on the island while I train up.

Signed up at the local gym for the summer, getting in shape for the APFT come August… big stuff. Not really though. This will be a fun year, I’ll be an RA on the 6th floor of Whiteface Hall, one of two freshmen dorms on campus. I’ll be a MSIII in the ROTC program… big year; next summer I’m off to Fort Lewis, Washington for a month getting assessed and completing random training. awesome.

This post was more of an update than anything… I’ll posting more things this summer. I need something to keep my interest. Ideas? comment…

Peace.

Originally published at an attempt.. Please leave any comments there.

I thought I’d go ahead and post for once.
The topic? The MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.

So, while dealing with ROTC scholarship and enrollment paperwork and stuff, an ongoing activity of mine throughout the summer, I discovered I had to take the ASVAB. Now, anyone who knows anything about the military probably knows about the ASVAB; basically it’s a test covering almost everything you could think of (reading, math, arithmetic, mechanics, automotive etc…) that anyone and everyone who enlists must take. The path I’m taking down the ROTC road involves me becoming a field enlistment in a local infantry unit outside of Plattsburgh.

OK, so I drive down to Fort Hamilton, about an hour and half drive. I enter the gates, told to go off to the side to get my Jeep checked out. The security officer asks for my insurance and registration, I hand the papers over, and he tells me my insurance card is expired. I check it, it expired two days earlier. Figures.

I leave the base gates, go onto a side road and park down there. Reenter, go through security check, get my little visitors pass, and continue to the MEPS building. MEPS is supposed to be a building accessible only by those in the military. Generally, when you go there for your exam or ASVAB test as a recruit, you’re accompanied by your recruiter… mine was 350 miles north in Plattsburgh, so he could not attend.

I look around the building, go to the front, all locked, all only accessible by those with a military ID. I wait around for a bit, and then a Sergeant walks up to the doors and waves her card in front of the proximity detector… me being 3 feet away, I quickly follow behind her.

Enter into the main lobby, we have the main control desk on the left, Oath room on the right, security checkpoint in front of me (which for whatever reason was not being used). I walk up to the Control desk, show them my Test request forms, and I’m told I’m not in the computer. The guy tells me to go down the stairs, down the hall to the Army National Guard offices. I do as I’m told, enter the office with no military ID, and no name tag (which is how they tell who’s a recruit and who is not) and speak with a secretary. She confirms I’m not in the computer, gives me some shit for a few minutes, realizes I’m from Plattsburgh and asks why I’m taking the test here. Long story short, after about standing around for an hour, many phone calls to my recruiter and many questions from a few more Sergeants, I’m good to go.

After all is done, and I’m authorized to take the test, they tell me that I should not have been able to get as far into the building as I did. Apparently security was supposed to stop me right at the entrance into the building… pretty funny.

Took the ASVAB, scored very well (w/o studying/any knowledge in automotive’s, not too bad) and got out of there.

My day at MEPS. All for a score. I get to experience the Albany version later next week. Can’t wait.

Originally published at an attempt.. Please leave any comments there.

A very unpopular question asked of me, not once, but never.

I’ve been working an incredible amount, doing a good amount of community service and been seeing my family a lot before I make the journey up north again. It’s been a fun past few weeks but the reality of it all is that summer is winding down, things are getting serious and there is less and less to do.

Looking back on my summer, did I really do everything I wanted to? I went to school, went to work, hung out with a few people, and did some community service. Didn’t really go on any huge vacations to Rockport, Mass. like I wanted to… but that’s alright… next summer I suppose. But I think I’m finally getting to that point in my life where summer vacation really isn’t anything special or exciting anymore… it’s just another part of the year to me, with a little more sun and a little more time to myself… a little.

Then again, now that I think about it, I definitely have done a lot more than that. Every experience is a lesson learned, and if that’s the case, I might as well have just said I was in school all summer.

Alright, enough enough of this. Sorry about the delay, I’m back for at least a little bit… If anyone reads this, let me know what you want me to write about, and whether it should be serious, comical or just whatever. I need some motivation with this thing

Originally published at an attempt.. Please leave any comments there.

As a forewarning, I’m jumping around in this one:

It’s kind of interesting how fast my mood can change. I realized I had pretty much the perfect Sunday, not to mention the perfect weekend. No work, no stress, no parents, no brothers, got paid… saving up some money…. just very, very relaxing. Exactly what I needed. My mood going into this weekend is perfect, and will stay perfect.

If there’s one thing I strive for the most, it would have to be perspectives. Meeting new people, getting new perspectives through listening, even finding new music and listening to that… it just gets me thinking about new and really interesting things… gets me thinking about where they came from, how something like this was created/raised… I find it all incredibly fascinating. They all have an impact on me and the way I live, too… which is awesome.

It seems to me that those who succeed with a positive attitude and love it, are the well rounded people. This is what I hope to do with every aspect in my life. I’ve been talking to some people… and I’ve found, with their help, that I don’t fit any stereotype really perfectly. The Catholic boy one, the Military child one, the Straight edge college student one, the musically inclined one… none of them are really me, but a definite combination… and this is also certainly the case of a lot of people, too… but it really becomes important to acknowledge this, especially when people really just ride those stereotypes with no caution and only assumptions.

I’ve recently met someone in the same boat as me. The stereotypes don’t fit the individual; she’s everything but one. It’s interesting meeting someone, and getting to know someone so well, that is in that same situation.

I have so much to learn.

Originally published at an attempt.. Please leave any comments there.

So straight up, this blog is meant to be an attempt at a piece of writing that would be read like you were talking to me… hopefully somehow this would be moderately entertaining to read, and to even write at that… writing’s usually fun for some, right? Maybe it’ll be for me… maybe.

Today was the last day of my summer class (in case no one knew, I’ve been taking public speaking over @ Suffolk for the past four weeks at an attempt to get credits out of the way) and I think I did pretty well, hoping for an A minus, that would be pretty sweet… especially considering I need the grades, too.

…

See? that entire sentence was very LJ-esque.
Fail.
No, actually, I know you don’t care. I barley care. The only significant thing that sentence carries is the fact that I finished, which to me means I can finally start making money.

money… Seriously, it’s the point when you buy lunch every day at work, and then go to put gas in your car at the end of the week when you realize you’re making shit (in regards to pay, not the actual stuff [while that happened's, too])

That wasn’t even funny. SEE? That was borderline gross… and obvious… and gross.

We’ll work on this.

Originally published at an attempt.. Please leave any comments there.

…Wish my dog could do this.

Actually, my dog(’s [I have four]) are amazing, and could that. Well, not right away anyway, but they’re perfectly capable. I think.

Egh, there actually was this one time, when Scooter (he’s a pug/not-really-kind-of beagle mix) was chasing my brother up and down the house, from the front door to all the way down the back door because he had this toy he was teasing Scooter with. When he ran back up to the front door, Scooter would normally turn because he followed the toy, but this time around my brother pulled the toy away right as he was running towards it, which just happened to be inches away from the the CLOSED front door… The resulting injury from that may actually hinder him from balancing a ball on the head.

HOWEVER, this doesn’t mean we will not try.