Shut down for the second time

Well my dream of being a military pilot has once again been shut down and the hatred I have for my left eye has once again increased exponentially! I can't believe that my one eye could still drag me down that much. The standard was obviously not lowered much, though that's life and I'll just have to come up with another plan. Though all hope is not lost in my attempts to switch career paths. I'm taking measures to become either an Air Traffic Controller or an Air Navigator. Fortunately my eyes don't restrict me from those trades. So we'll see how that goes. Otherwise I'll have to stick it out as an Airfield Engineer and an engineer in general, unless I go infantry or some other trade not in the Air Force. But we'll see how it goes. I love this place to much to leave, just because my dreams aren't fulfilled. So wish me luck!

Awesome Tribute Video

I just thought I'd share this awesome tribute video with you all. I found it on youtube and I personally think it's one of the best I've seen. Good music, good pictures, and some nice footage to show the world how our men and women are making a difference at the pointy end of the fight!

Time for a Change

Well you know how I said last week I was starting to understand things? Well apparently I'm not, according to my midterms. Let's just that I would have been happy if the marks had been above 50 but lower then my normal. But they weren't above 50, so I'm not happy. Also I've been doing a lot of thinking. Now correct me if you think I'm wrong (though honestly I don't know how you would know if I'm wrong) but I'm really not a Science/Engineering type of person if you truly think about it a lot. Deep down I'm an intellect in Arts type classes. I really don't enjoy working with equations and formulas or spending my time trying to figure out the coefficient of friction for some block on an inclined plane. I don't enjoy figuring out how many moles of oxygen come from some reaction. I enjoy reading about what happened in the past, reading good books, discussing historical events, and that sort of thing. So that's my issue with school. However, because of the trade I'm put into I might have a problem.

Who knew an Airfield Engineer would need an Engineering or a Science degree to have a job. Then again I don't want to be an Airfield Engineer now that I hear more about it and think more about it. I have to be involved with an airplane in some controlling fashion. Whether I'm flying it or telling it where to go from a tower. All of my former girlfriends and my parents can attest to how much I need flying in my life. It only consumed every weekend of my life in the fall and spring since I was in Grade 11, and before that it consumed every day dream I ever had (sorry ladies). So the moral of that story is I'm switching trades.

Anyways I'd love to here everyone's opinions on my possible decisions or more like probable decisions. Though at the end of the day I'll be making the decision whether my friends and familiy like it or not. I'd just like to hear someone tell me that I'm right.

Suddenly

So suddenly school is coming to me. Still not as fast I'd like but it's coming to me. I've begun to adjust to the idea that I'm no longer the coolest kid on the playground, and I'm really starting to enjoy RMC. I wrote my calculus midterm yesterday and I know for a fact I didn't do great, but I'm pretty sure I passed it. My room mate reminded me of something we were told when we got here: "You haven't failed until someone has told you that you've failed." After mulling that one over I realized it was true and that I have yet to actually fail at anything. I also felt better when I found out that my mark on my last algorithms quiz was just as a good as the majority of the class and actually probably better then a lot of people's marks. Then when the prof finally explained stuff it all made sense and it made even more sense when I went to her tutorial. I've got 3 midterms on Monday, which I'm a little worried about, but I've decided I'm gonna do my best and not give up until I'm forced to kicking and screaming. Hmmm so that's my speech about how I feel better about RMC, and how I don't feel like a depressed bag of crap as I did a few short days ago. I'm sure I'll get the same feeling a few more times during the next four years but I know I can handle it.

So last night I ventured into Kingston with a group of friends. Nothing to exciting, bought some new shoes (let's just say they were worth what I probably spent in a single year on shoes, but when you're in the military your feet are important), watched a movie (The Kingdom, freaking awesome movie, except now that I know how to use a weapon in a military fashion I criticize all of the gun play a lot), and some of us drove around Queens doing a recce for later presence patrols (if you catch my drift. Queens is sorta like Strathclair was to me when I was in Shoal Lake, if you once again catch my drift, except I haven't actually met anyone yet. All in good time). Walking down Princess St. (downtown Kingston) in our uniforms (we have to) is a great way to get negative looks from Queens guys and positive from the ladies. Plus some of the girls were screaming at us from a balcony about Christmas Ball, so it shouldn't be hard to bring some girls across the causeway for the ball in November. Well that's about it for my random activities. Time to hit up la biblioteche pour studying.

RMC vs. SLS

So right now I should probably tending to my mound of home work or taking the last oppurtunity I have to rest before I go back to Kingston tomorrow but I'm up and posting again. This time I'm going to talk about the differences between Shoal Lake School and the Royal Military College of Canada. Some of these differences are pros, some cons, and some of them are just things I need to learn to adapt to. So to sum the adaptation part up I need to listen to some advice I've often dished out. That being: "Suck it up buttercup!". That's exactly what I've been doing to. Though I also need to curb my procrastination habit but then again so does every student on the face of the planet. So let me begin with the differences between SLS (the best high school I can think of) and RMC (the best college that's actually a university I can think of).

So where to begin. Obviously one institution is a university and the other a high school. RMC has tons of tradition and history. SLS not so much, though hopefully my leg waxing and mohawk stunts have paved the way for future presidents to do equally crazy stuff, thus starting some sort of tradition. Back in high school I pretty much dominated or at least in some ways. I may not have been the brightest or the most athletic person to grace the hallway of SLS but I still ruled that school in comparison to RMC. I could walk into the principal's office sit in his comfy chair, spin around in it, use his phone, hell maybe even use his pen and paper to write myself a note. I did this simply by asking the secretary if I could. I don't even know where the principle's office is at RMC but I'm quite sure his secretary wouldn't let me into see him without an appointment let alone let me in to his empty office to use the phone. At SLS I said hi to the little kids and they replied. I did that because it was the nice thing to do and it made them feel included. At RMC I say good-day to the older students and if I'm lucky they reply with a good-day first year. I'm lucky if I get my lastname said to me let alone my first. In fact the only person that says my first name is Henk. FYI I'm not complaining I'm just going through some of the differences between my new life and old life.

Then there's my classes. I had a full course load all through high school, but I was never taking more then 6 classes at a time. Oh and my classes were much smaller. Grade 12 math there was maybe 15 people at the most. 1st year calculus...............45-50 students. There is definitely more differences I could go through, but my desire to sleep outweighs my desire to talk about my life. So goodnight and hopefully you enjoyed hearing about the changes in my lifestyle!

P.S. I have no problem with running more then 2kms without stopping now. In fact I ran 6.6kms in 40 minutes this past Friday.

Official Member

Well I'm officially a member of the Royal Military College of Canada. Over a week ago I ran the annual first year obstacle course that marks the end of FYOP (First Year Orientation Period). This year's course had an additional 3 obstacles bringing the total to 13 obstacles (more then any other Shoal Lake boy has ever had to run! So suck it up Henk!). It was about 2 hours of pain, sweating, dirt, mud, yelling, cheering, fun, water, fatigue, endurance, etc, etc. I don't think I've ever been dirtier in my life and I've had some pretty dirty events in my life (changing oil and having it spilt all over my body, PMU chores, etc). Check out facebook for the obstacle course pictures and if your a parent (Wanda and Tammy lol get your children to show you!). At the bottom is the pic of me after the course with a clean sweater and my college coin (coin that all RMC students get with their number inscribed on it, there's a great deal of traditions to go along with the coin. But they're all drinking traditions and I don't have the time to describe them lol.) Oh and that's a picture of me and Brucie (the ideal cadet statue with his gaitors on backwards). Those leather things on my ankles are gaitors and they suck a lot. Ok so due to my lack of technical ability the picture of me with coin is on the bottom and my pic with Brucie on the top. FYI the blue college uniform I'm wearing with Brucie (my 4s) is what I must wear to town until I earn the priviledge to wear civilian dress.

So after the obstacle course I went out to town with my parents who came down to Kingston to visit. Which was awesome and bad all at once. It was awesome to see my parents but seeing them made me more homesick then I was when I was 12 years old at Air Cadet Basic in Penhold, AB (and I was super homesick then). But it was good. They stayed to watch my badging parade on Saturday when I became an official member of the college. It was an awesome feeling to become an official member of the college and 8 Squadron (the best Squadron in the Wing). On Sunday we had the Memorial Parade for all the fallen cadets of RMC. The first years lined the parade route, which was an honor but a little unfun because weapons drill is not easy after being fatigued from the roughest, most stressful month possible. Sunday I also had to say good-bye to my parents and watch as they left for Manitoba and left me back in Kingston. Oh well in 69 to 70 days I'll be planting my feet on Friendly Manitoban soil and having a lot of fun for three weeks. So lock up your daughters and watch out. Just kidding you don't have to lock up your daughters but watch out for me having lots of fun.

So my first week as a normal RMC student went fairly well. Though my homework is piling up higher then Mount Everest and making it hard for me to see my bed from my desk. I work out 4 times a week, because I didn't perform well enough on the RMC PT test but in my defense I was bagged from everything that was going on when I did my test so passing it at the end of October shouldn't be a problem and I should be out of my mandatory work outs, so then I'll be able to work out on my own. Hmmmm algorithms class blows. That's just a little FF (fun fact). I have no idea what goes on in that class. At least calculus is sorta easy to follow along with. But algorithms I have no idea what's going on. Somehow I managed to get a good mark on the one quiz though so that should float me until I figure out what an algorithm even is.

Right now I'm on leave in London visiting relatives. It's pretty sweet. I got to meet my cousins husband (I was a bad cousin and never attended the wedding). I slept in till quarter till 3 which is the longest I've ever slept in till but then again I haven't napped in over a month or gone to bed before 11 in over a month so the sleep was needed!! So yeah, that's all that's new right now. Hopefully I find some time to make a post on the differences between SLS and RMC this weekend. Should be a good post where I manage to excercise my creative writing skills and reflect on my days as a carefree student at the best high school in the world (sorry Strathclair) and discuss my current days at the coolest college in the world (sorry U of M).