Friday, March 30, 2007

So Far

So my last spring break as a high school student has been going pretty good so far. Started it off by not going to school on Friday and lengthening my break by an extra day. That night was Adrienne and Allison's birthday party. Pretty good time there. The next day went to the wave pool in Dauphin. On Sunday, Adrienne's parents gave me the keys to the car and I took Adrienne, Allison and some of their friends to Brandon. Watched "Shooter", which by the way is probably my new favourite movie. I wish I could be as clever as Mark Walhberg's character. Anyways......

Monday I flew to Esterhazy with Russ Hamilton. It was awesome, because I got to do a bunch of the flying and I haven't flown power since I got my license. Once I got back to Shoal Lake, I went and picked Adrienne up and we hung out for a bit. Tuesday, I did odd jobs around the house. Wednesday, I went on the cadet trip to CFB Shilo. Surprisingly it was a good trip. To bad no one in the Army knows the air cadet ranks. I must have been called the wrong rank 2 or 3 times. We toured the artillery museum, the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery armoury, and the PPCLI armoury. So we checked out some artillery pieces, LAVs, and some other interesting pieces of equipment.

Yesterday (Thursday), went to the Winter Fair with Adrienne and her family. Probably the best fair I've been to because of the company. Though the fact that someone fell off their horse as it was jumping and two horses broke free during the 6 horse hitch, made for some interesting viewing.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Power Posse Reunion at RMC?

So yesterday I got another phone call from the Recruiting Center. This time it was my verbal acceptance of their offer of employment. Naturally I said yes. Then the officer informed me of when my training starts and that I'd be getting a contract to sign soon. I start my IAP (Initial Assessment Phase) http://www.cflrs.forces.gc.ca/site/soyez_prets/pei_e.asp in St. Jean, PQ on July 2nd, which means I won't be missing my grad or any other grad for that matter. So I intend to have three days of partying to send me off on my way. That phase of my training ends August 31st, and then it's off to Kingston, Ontario for university. Man I can't wait to start.

Yesterday and today I got some news from some flying friends of mine. Two friends of mine from gliding got in as well. The two of them were part of the Power Posse. The Posse was a 6 person fraternity I was in during my summer at RGS in 05. Supposedly there's also a girl that took gliding with me that year going to, but I don't really know her because we were in different flights. One of my friends got in to be a pilot. The other is going to be a Logistics Officer, because his right eye flunked the eye exam, which is sorta funny because my left flunked.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Not quite child birth......

Well today I had a taste of what being a girl was like. No I didn't give birth to a child or experience anything biological. I took the plunge or more like the rip and had my leg hair removed by means of waxing and eventually shaving because apparently long legs + lots of hair = a quick shortage of waxing strips. The reason being for this little shindig was the school magazine campaign. The school came short of their goal by 5 or 10 subscriptions. Though I decided to be a good sport and show them that if they work someone will go through something embarrassing to reward them. Let's just hope none of my heirs are that nice and actually make the school reach the goal before engaging in some sort of drastic measure. Now for the next few weeks I'll have funny looking legs everytime I go swimming or wear shorts but man are they smooth lol! Anyways.....

Monday, March 19, 2007

5 Months!

So today it's been 5 months since Adrienne and I started going out. Craziness. I can't believe it. It's been and still is amazing. I'm extremely happy about it. I don't know if I could be any happier at this point in time. It looks like I've finally found out where I'm heading in life and I'm surrounded by amazing people. It's fantastic and only getting better because that's how spring works!

In other news I dug my mountain bike out of the shed. Had to take it apart to get it out but I got it out. I also found out why my car has been so loud. The exhaust system is pretty much hanging mere inches from catastrophe by a bolt or two. Maybe, I'll be able to get something cool like glasspacks but then I'd have to leave people's houses earlier so I don't wake the rest of the house up. Oh and Friday I'm gonna take the day off, because I can do that.

Oh and if some anonymous person comes to rain on my parade they can just screw off!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Phone Call

Well I haven't been able to tell everyone important yet but I figured I'd just put it on here and let the world know. Today as I was sitting at the dinner table working on calculus, the phone rang. The call display came up and said it was some weird number. I thought it was a survey but it wasn't. I should have known it was the recruiting center because I'd seen the number before but that's neither here nor there. After the officer asked for Brad (that's me) she began to tell me the news. I've been accepted for ROTP (Regular Officer Training Plan) at RMC (Royal Military College of Canada) in Kingston, Ontario. I was chosen for my first choice, which 6 months ago was my 3rd choice. That being an Airfield Engineer. I'm super excited. I doubt I'll be able to sleep until the official paperwork comes through in the next few weeks. If you wanna know what my job will be once I'm done university then check this out http://www.forces.ca/v3/engraph/jobs/jobs.aspx?id=46&bhcp=1 . The officer told me not to make any concrete plans but that in about the third week of June I'll be going into Winnipeg to the Recruiting Center to be sworn in as an Officer Cadet (the lowest of the low in the CF until being commissioned) and around the first weekend in July I'll be shipped off to St. Jean, PQ for IAP and BOTC (Initial Assessment Phase and Basic Officer Training Course). So I won't be back until Christmas 2007 if all goes according to plan. So no more farm work for this guy lol!

So now you all know and I finally know where I'm going to university. I'm kinda speechless so I've ran out of things to say. Anyways thanks for the continuing support and lets hope this all goes off with out any problems.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

GLIDING SEASON!!

Yippee!! I got an email today about gliding season starting on the 14th of April if the snow is gone hooray!! And there's going to be 2 or possibly 3 work up weekends so I'll probably get my backseat rating!! I can't wait. I'm chomping at the bit! Oh and we're going to the Portage Airshow!!! Oh boy I'm freakin excited!!! It's better then Christmas and my birthday put together!!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Have you ever imagined?

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to live hundreds of years ago? Particularly in the Romantic Period. That's the literary period we looked at today in English. We had to pick a poem, read it, and discuss its meaning in class today. I thought I was being smart when I picked one of Robbie Burns' love poems because I thought it would be easy to understand but then I was educated on what its true purpose was. Supposedly he most likely didn't mean what he wrote and simply wrote it to look sensitive to pick up girls. Also men used to memorize poems to woo girls. Good thing I didn't live back then because Mrs. Harder told me I wasn't reading the poetry properly. But anyways Mrs. Harder was telling us about how fathers paid people to marry their daughters, only the oldest sons inherited anything and the rest joined the military, and there was only two social classes. I knew most of it but I decided to imagine what it would have been like back then anyways. Must have been some interesting times.

So lastnight I started reading my new book Catch-22. So far I think it's one of the best novels I've ever read before. It's about an American bombardier in WW2 who wants to live forever or die trying in the process. Him and his buddy Dunbar come up with things to get out of combat. For example they fake illnesses to go to the hospital and only leave the hospital when another patient annoys them or they get bored. Anyways some very interesting stuff. Makes me wish I could study English literature and history for the rest of my life. Maybe if I win the lottery or my future wife wins the lottery I'll spend it on studying English and history.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Ahh my head is pounding and I haven't done anything to deserve it. I'm assuming it's from all the smoke I was in this weekend at my 6th and final cadet winter excercise. Which was actually one of the better excercises I've participated in despite the low numbers and 0 seniors with myself being the exception. Since there was barely anyone who showed up there was a pile of spare food so Carlyle, Willem, and I ate a ton of pudding, roasted dinner rolls over a fire to make toast, and pretty much consumed a lot of food. Carlyle and I attempted to pull off an all nighter but gave up about five minutes into it and simply dumped every piece of firewood on the fire and watched it from the comfort of our sleeping bags until we past out. I forgot the sleeping bags were made for hobbits so I had to curl up and one of my shoulders stuck out but otherwise I was nice and cozy all night except for when the kid beside me would kick or roll. Though the excercise was sorta like that M*A*S*H episode where all the nurses leave and it's just the doctors. Except Willem, Carlyle, and I aren't doctors and none of us have relationships with nurses. So maybe it wasn't like that episode but still that's a classic and it was brought up while we sat around the fire.

We'll go back a few days now to Friday. This past Friday was probably an above average Friday. Adri came over to hang out, then Youth Group which was still fun even though we got locked out of the gym, and then more hanging out after Youth Group. The only bad part of the day was when two people I won't name stole the chips and made me chase them for the chips. This week should be nice and slow. Only curling and cadets. So I've got tons of free time to finally get to work on calculus. 106 days until graduation!

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Why is it?

So last night when I ended up at Koroscil's listening to my parents and the parents of my classmates socialize an important question came up. As we all know Anna-Nicole Smith past away a few weeks back. We also know that almost everyday a Canadian, American, or other NATO/UN soldier dies in some country peacekeeping or bringing freedom to the oppressed. There is also starving children, people caught up in epidemics, and other such events which cause loss of life.

In this situation who does the world pay attention to though? Anna-Nicole Smith or in this case the individual. An individual I might add who in the giant scheme of things contributed virtually nothing to society in comparison to some of the other people that we know lose their lives on a daily basis. So why is it that the society we live in only pays attention to blondes with big knockers and millions of dollars? Anna-Nicole Smith didn't do anything great for society such as keep the peace or cure a disease. She didn't even work the millions of dollars she possessed.

So why is that we've paid more attention to her lately? She's not the only blonde we pay attention to. Or for that matter the only famous person we pay attention to. I think it's screwed up how we only pay attention to useless celebrities when we really should be paying attention to and appreciating the soldiers, doctors, lawyers, and other people who actually work to make this world better.

I think it's because the majority of people need to be entertained. They don't care about what matters as long as they are nice and comfortable with their boob tube pumping out the entertainment. In conclusion I feel that we should all feel ashamed of ourselves as a society for ignoring what truly matters. I'll now end my senseless rant, which will most likely be ignored because it's not entertaining and it bashes the celebrities we as people some times equate to as gods.

The Latest Happenings

Thursday - Snow day! I cleaned my room up a bit, skidooed to Adri's for supper, watched some TV, and called it a day.

Friday - Snow day! Provincials started finally after being pushed back an entire day plus a few hours. We had an embarrassing game against a team from Winnipeg who appeared to have made curling a better portion of their lives. With the exception of the third who liked his thumb alot. Amazing team until the etiquette was required. Then there was the banquet, which was amazing because those ladies know how to put on a good meal. Mike Leach supplied the entertainment by hypnotizing some folks. RIP Tiffany's rope skipping giraffe. Then I drove Adrienne and Katy home. Disappointed everyone by finally joining the ranks of the many who've gotten stuck in Lennox's yard lol. Had some birthday cake with Ethan and made it home in good time.

Saturday - Curled bright and early against Rossburn in Strathclair. Lost a close one and that draw I screwed over in the 7th end is still playing in my head along with the draw in the 8th. Man did I feel bad about those and still do. Thanks to everyone who came out and watched that game and the Friday game. So with that loss we were effectively out of Provincials so I headed back to Shoal Lake to be the Assistant Assistant Icemaker. After that I went to Huckerby-Smiths and hung out with Adri and the gang. Then on my way home I figured I should probably see what my parents were doing in town. So I ended up at Koroscil's listening to certain adults impart wisdom on many things.

Sunday - Today I woke up around 11:30. Showered and ate. Headed into town to help with the curling and when it appeared there was nothing left to do I came home to do homework. Still haven't done the homework but I did take a nap. That's it!