Catch Up Time

So I guess I've got two months to catch up on. FYI the second video I mentioned isn't going on the internet, it was just a little to big. It will be brought home to watch at Christmas. Anyways with the video post aside I'll go back to the last week of Second Language Training (SLT) or in some people's case Strenous Liver Testing. Not so much mine, I balanced drinking with fine dining and other adventures (ie. bike trip, Vermont trip, Jazz Fest, etc). So the last week of Language Training proved to be about as exciting as the other 4 and that's it.

After Language Training it was straight into Basic Officer Training Period. To prove the point I'll say we ate lunch in the beautiful officer's mess and ate supper in the less beautiful recruits mess all within the same day. We also gave up our RMC cap badges, our nice name tags, rank slip-ons, etc in exchange for the accroutments officer cadets wear on training at the lovely Mega. Fortunately we got that weekend off and all of the others to follow though we had some close calls. The next 7 weeks consisted of some fairly interesting military training and in my opinion far from grueling training. The course in my opinion was relatively easy and my platoon of 63 had some amazing staff. To skip out on long drawn out descriptions of the entire thing I'll just do a quick overview of everything I learned over the course. The bulk of the course was leadership and battle procedures, which honestly was the only stuff I had a hard time staying awake in this year. Last year everything put us to sleep but we weren't as well conditioned back then. The leadership and battle procedures stuff is pretty self-explanatory. Simply put it's the bread and butter of being an officer in the CF.

The stuff that I definitely didn't fall asleep for and found to be a lot of fun, despite the liters of sweat that came out of me from, was CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) training. Thankfully in the 90 or so years since World War 1, scientists developed gas masks and suits so we didn't have to put urine soaked rags over our faces to go into the gas hut. So what we did for this was about 1 day of classroom stuff, followed by about a day or so of practicing the procedures in suiting up and masking up. Then we spent a morning fully suited up waiting for our turn to go into the gas hut to practice masking up in a gas filled room (don't panic it was just tear gas). I actually had a lot of fun doing it, except for the sweating.

The other fun thing I did was a morning of bayonet fighting. Since it was only an introduction it was only about 2 or 3 hours one morning but it was lots of fun. It was really exhausting and by the end it was hard to stay coordinated with all the different moves. Plus we all lost our voices from the war cries we had to yell out as we pretended to slash and stab our imaginery enemies.

Fortunately drill was pretty much NIL this year. PT was fun and enjoyable for the most part. Weapons training was an hour long refresher. The other classroom stuff was fairly interesting as well.

We had two 5 day excercises in Farnham. The first one being Pre-Vimy. 5 days of living under 3 ground sheets with two girls in my case, learning about how to utilize battle procedures in a field environment. We also learned how to do basic section attacks, patrols, relearned road blocks, etc. It was pretty good with the exception of the extremes in weather. It was either bright and sunny (like the day we did missions in CBRN suits which meant tons of sweating and a feeling of impending fainting) or raining (usually when we had to do something involving hiding in grass or walking through bush). At the end of the excercise there was a pretend attack on our bivouac and we had to defend it. We were each issued 150 rounds of blank ammunition for the week and we didn't have many oppurtunities to fire them all week. When the orders came to fire them all off, they went pretty fast. We finished the week off with a maritime crossing, which equalled to about an hour or so of waiting with a rope tied around your waist and crotch quite firmly, and 30 seconds of sailing across a river on a cable. Lots of fun, but I walked funny for a few hours after getting that rope off.

The following week was Excercise Vimy, the final test of whether we learned anything about the 16 steps of battle procedures. We lived in what is called a Forward Operating Base (FOB). It's supposed to be a simulation of overseas operations. They have them in Afghanistan. It's sort of like a M*A*S*H type setting for those of you who have watched the show. For those of you who have no idea of what a FOB looks like or never watch M*A*S*H, just imagine some green modular tents, a few sea containers, and a watch tower. Take all of this and surround it by concertina wire (aka razor wire), take some people in green walking around with assault rifles, throw in some oil drums, a gatehouse, a flag, and some outhouses. That my friends is a FOB. That was home for about 5 days. The 4 sections of the platoon conducted concurrent 4 hour long missions out of our FOB (FOB Atlantic/Atlantique) for the majority of the week, with one section performing FOB security when the other 3 were out on missions. These missions were non-stop round the clock missions, meaning sleeping and eating had to be done when time was available (usually when the section commander for the mission was taking orders from the platoon commander). I was in charge of FOB security during my tenure as commander of 1 Section, I had to deal with 4 refugees being chased by insurgents. All of the characters in the missions are played by actors and they fit into a peacekeeping story line that we are provided with the week before the excercise to give us the feeling of being on an overseas deployment. Needless to say during my mission some shooting happened in order to protect the refugees and the FOB. On one mission my fireteam and I were tasked with protecting an imbedded journalist who also happened to be a little suicidal. Not only did she annoy us with stupid questions, she ran towards the firefight when our section was engaged. We tried to chase after her but to prevent becoming casualties ourselves we had to give up chase. We later found out that in the 3 years our platoon commander had known this certain actress she had only been prevented from dieing in this scenario once when two guys much bigger then me and definitely bigger then my two lady fireteam partners literally sat on her. So hopefully that gives you a feel for how realistic the scenarios are made. So it was both an exciting and stressful weak, with some laughs and some snapping depending on the occassion. To end the excitment off and finish off the ammunition we'd been issued 3 of the sections attacked my section, while we protected the FOB.

The last week of BOTP was grad week. Lots of drill, one amazing course party, and lots of sitting around to sign paperwork.

The weekends of BOTP, were always enjoyable with at least one birthday party, multiple trips up the road to the Dix Trente in Brossard for a stroll around the shopping center, a weird trip to the Jewish sector of Montreal in search of an English movie theater, and one visit to a cornfield. The exception being the 3 duty shifts I ended up with on 2 Friday nights, and a Saturday. C'est la vie!

Now I'm back in Kingston, and getting excited to start school!

A Taste of my Summer in Quebec

Well not sure if anyone still looks at this anymore, because my lacking in Internet connection prevented me from posting. Anyways, don't really have the time to get into long drawn out details of my summer, but I can show you a video of one my weekend adventures on Second Language Training courtesy of my friend Jeremie, he's seen in the video. Stay tuned for more later on this week.....hopefully!

Well it’s Canada Day. I’m sure most of you have noticed the lack of posts on the blog these days. That can be attributed to my lack of internet, and the fact that the little internet I’m capable of accessing blogging is blocked out. Though I do have a secondary source, so I’ve decided to collect up some of my recent thoughts and get them out while I have the chance to utilize my secondary source. Canada Day marks my last statute holiday for a while, and that I have four days left in my stay at the Canadian Forces Language School. On Monday I’ll move from my comfy standard of living to a less comfortable standard when I move back over to the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School, to complete part two of my Basic Officer Training Course.
Well I will fill you all in with what I’ve been up to since I last posted. I’ve still been studying French during the week. What I’ve been doing on the weekends has been much more exciting. Well one weekend I ventured down to Vermont with some pals of mine. We visited Burlington, which I’m pretty sure is the capital of Vermont. We gave ourselves a walking tour of the city, and the University of Vermont. The weekend after we decided to bike to Montreal, after the thought was provoked by a Health Day held at the Royal Military College (St. Jean Campus). The ride to Montreal was around 60kms and took us about 3 hours. Getting across the St. Lawrence from Longueuil to Montreal was quite the adventure. Who ever is in charge of building or constructing the numerous bike paths in Quebec did not clearly map or build them across the St. Lawrence. Needless to say we made our away across the Champlain Bridge over top La Ronde (Montreal’s amusement park), and into Montreal. Fortunately we hit Ste. Catherine’s Street, where we found a nice little hamburger shop. After dining on some good eats, we biked through The Village, down into the Old Port, where we biked down cobblestone streets, which needless to say hurt my already sensitive and sore rear. After more pedaling, and a few wrong turns we ended up on the racetrack used for Formula 1 races. After a few more wrong turns, path closures, and a stop at a convenience store for a few litres of Powerade, we got back on the trail and on the way back to St. Jean. Needless to say it was one of the most physically exerting 12 hour periods of my life. This past weekend I ended up in Montreal once again, not on a bicycle this time though. With some friends I attended the Montreal Jazz Festival, which is supposedly the largest outdoors jazz festival in the world.....supposedly. I also had the chance to visit a friend I haven’t seen in quite some time, which was awesome. Stay tuned to Facebook for pictures of most of these adventures.
Happy Canada Day! Stay tuned for more, and don’t worry if there’s large gaps in between posts.

My Apologies

So it's been over a month since I wrote on here. Partially because I've forgotten to, partially because I've been busy, and partially because I've been lacking an internet connection. Anyways I had a lot of ideas about stuff to talk about, but most of them are out of date. Anyways I'll just sum some stuff up, because if I don't it might be months again before I get internet access that allows me to blog.

-My two weeks of holidays were great with one small exception. Holidays in May?? One of the worst times of the year for someone who originates from a rural community. I was able to see most of the people I was intending on seeing, but as always I miss a few. But seriously holidays in May? Worst time of the year.

-Oh skipping back in time to just before my departure for holidays. I switched academic programs to science. My major being physics. Judging by the course descriptions for the courses I registered in, I think second year will be much more enjoyable and I'll come out in 2011 with a degree that I can use and enjoyed getting. So same job, different degree, but things are looking bright, plus second year should be a lot more stress free.

-Where am I now? In St. Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec once again for hopefully my final stay in the Mega. Let's just say that Mega doesn't mean mega happiness or fun. Though French training isn't so bad. It's just the sitting in a hot class room for 6-7 hours a day that makes it difficult. Oh well on July 7th, I begin my summer long trek to finish part two of my Basic Officer Training Course.

-Where am I actually physically, geographically at the moment? In Ottawa visiting relatives, and cursing out Microsoft for making it so difficult for me to update my computer properly. Then again the slacker salesman who sold the computer a year ago is partially to blame for the troubles.

-What else is new? Well for anyone who hasn't read the newspaper in the past 3 days....they named the new chief of defense staff. I won't spell his name, because I don't like misspelling Ukrainian or Polish names. But we're all happy to see another good general fill the void that will be left when our current CDS stands down. Plus the new CDS is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Need I say more but score 1 for Manitoba!

Anyways that's about all I have for now. If I'm not posting on a regular basis don't panic. I'm still alive, I'm just far away from any form of internet access.

Switchin to glide...

So my exams are all done, for better or worse. What now? EPT.....which for all of you people not attuned to the hundreds of acronyms I spit out means Environmental Physical Training. I fall under the Army category, because I'm a first year going on a course that covers general stuff, which is more applicable to ground operations. So we do a lot of running, and ruck marches. Only another two weeks of it, and parade practices and I'll be home on holidays, and then it's back to French training in St. Jean and Basic after that. Yeah, you read that right holidays. I've got two weeks in May, which will be only holidays until Christmas (Yes, I realize that means 7 months without stepping foot in Manitoba). I'll be taking a little bit of my own medicine and be sucking it up.

Anyways EPT is pretty chill. We get up early and do some activities. The last couple days its been runs and ruck marches. Some fairly easy stuff. On Monday I was the First Aider for the Range Day, which was pretty good because no one got hurt, but also a little crappy, because it was cold and rainy. The rest of the time I've been waking up for my activities and spending my afternoons napping, except on Tuesday, because it was Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's.

What else have I been up to? Well anyone lucky enough to be one of my 645 friends on Facebook (I'm slowly working towards one thousand) has probably viewed my photos of scenic Wolfe Island, where thanks to my friend (thank god he's going to have a GPS in that Hornet if he makes it through PFT) we ended up in the middle of nowhere on a 7 mile by 27 mile island. It got dark, there were thorns, trees, multiple obstructions, my other friend and I decided to wear shorts, and we were a good 5-7 miles away from the car all because he misread or forgot to read the legend on the map. So hopefully that's a lesson to all of you out there. On the bright side we ran into some guys who gave us some brewskies so the story had a happy ending. Read the map or you'll buddy **** your buddies. I also watched the movie Juno......all I can say is that it makes teen pregnancy look acceptable, because if a movie says it'll have a happy ending then there's a good chance it will in real life......not. The new Harold and Kumar movie is better then the first, Street Kings is a fictional account of what it would be like for me to be a cop (shooting the bad guys dead and falsifying the reports, because you know the court system will fail), Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a must see, and I can't remember what other movies I've watched out of boredom in the days following exams.

And You Thought Your Job Blew

When you're mad about your job and think it blows then read this. In fact this job can literally blow.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/mcguffin/20080407.html

Now if that job doesn't take nerves of steel and a great deal of luck then I don't know what does! Hopefully that is both a reminder of how much life in Canada is great and how support of nations in need like that is important!

This Time of Year

I think this might just be my favourite time of the year. Sure people's basements flood, the roads turn to quagmires, small children are lost in giant puddles, and small animals are squeezed to death at the Winter Fair but it's still my favourite time of the year. The punchline to this cruel joke? I'm stuck in school and far away from a quad. Not that I ever took said piece of mechanical marvel through the mud and snow only getting it and myself dirty.......I would never do that.......

Anyways this time of year just makes me want to get outside and do something, but I'm mated to a myriad of text books and papers. What else increases this pseudo homesickness feeling/desire to get outside? The two emails I got this week talking about the gliding season starting. With clear skys, calm breezes, and generally nice weather at this time of year, my desire to go flying is stronger then those feelings flying around a middle years dance. Needless to say between school, bureuacracy, lack of transportation, and overall lack of time I won't be gliding. Though like anyone with a strong desire to do something requiring money, I've begun to become even cheaper and started an attempt to save money up for a giant flying spree the moment I get close to a cheap rental plane (most likely this summer on leave back home for anyone interested in a ride.....though it might cost you something).

Hopefully my Dad doesn't read the next part...but...I've got a confession. I actually miss working on getting the farm machinery up to snuff at this time of year. I sit in graphics class trying to draw pictures. I hate the drawing part, but I enjoy trying to figure out where I saw the part before, and knowing deep down that I have an idea of what meaning the part has in the real world...unlike the city kids beside me.

Anyways what do I have to say about all of this? Well if growing up is going to school in order to get a job, and then working at that the job, or working in a series of jobs after school then so be it. The sooner that's over, the sooner I can retire to boondocks to spend my days outside and in the air!

No I'm not DEAD, and YES I do have a life plan!

So some of you are maybe wondering what's going on these days. Things haven't been the greatest per say. But today I came up with a plan. After making the decision to go to a certain briefing and thinking I'd come out none the wiser, I came out much wiser. Now I could beat around the bush and blow sunshine up certain parts of my reader's bodies. But I'm not going to. I hate engineering with a passion, and I really hate math (sorry Mr. Maynes). School isn't going as great as I'd like it to, in fact it's not going great at all. But I have options and now that I've become more informed through a little research and forcing myself to attend a briefing that in the end turned out to be a gold mine.

On Saturday we were all given briefings on our trades. In my case that was Airfield Engineering or Construction Engineering as it has now been redesignated. After the briefings I was a little rattled (I've been fairly rattled that last few weeks). The parts that rattled me were the lack of airplanes in any of the slides and the lack of airfields. Needless to say I didn't see much blue. However I've made the decision to stick with it. I've disliked many a thing before only to fall in love with it after getting into it. The part about hating engineering? Well that's where the briefing I went to falls into place. The briefing was about the faculty of science and despite the fact I'm in an engineering job I can study science oh and did I mention that scientists can get jobs. I've decided to go into physics. I've been in love with meteorology since the day I started flying as most of you can attest to after witnessing me forecast the weather joyfully. If I switch to science there's also room to play if some of the school doesn't fall into place this year. In science I'll get more oppurtunities to study things that I enjoy such as more environmental/weather related areas. I will also get a chance to write more, because I'll have lab reports to write and after hearing that the labs aren't stupid make work projects like the first year labs I've turned in my attempt to run from the science world. After some calm cool thinking I feel this is the best option for me. It's also the safest and it prevents me from selling my body on Portage Avenue in order to pay to go university or what ever people in Manitoba do to pay for school. A degree in Physics also allows me to apply for Education or Law if I decide to say good-bye to the military in 2017. I'll still be able to become bilingual, work out in a free gym, walk through the arch, look good in combats, and most of importantly serve my country. So now I'm going to go write an essay now that I've warmed my writing up and continue trying to save myself so that I can stay in Science with out paying for an extra year at this fine institution.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So once again not much to report on. As usual my life consists of going to school, going to the gym, and the odd other thing. I left the peninsula for the first time since Spring Break this weekend to go to the RMC Talent Show, which was ironically held at Queen's University. I must say it was quite the display of talent, and very entertaining. Saturday I did home work until 10 and later found myself in the drinking mess. I don't think I need to explain what happened there. While sitting in the mess my phone went off. Not that strange I know but......it was a phone call from Manitoba. Though the person who called was at Son of a Beach having "fun", which made talking a little difficult, and when that person was talked to later he couldn't even remember it. But it felt nice to know that people back home realize I still exist and apparently someone even asked why I wasn't at Son of a Beach.....rumour has it that person was slightly buzzed. So that's bout all the news I have for now.

What I'd like to say now is about something I read on the news today. Yesterday across the country people went out and protested our participation in Afghanistan. Now I have to keep this clean...but. I think it's great that the people who went out and protested have opinions. If everyone thought the same then we'd still be cavemen and we'd be very bored.....but! If you are going to express your opinions think of a better way of doing it. If you love Canada so much to protest its participation in world affairs, then you should love the men and women who wear the uniform enough to not protest in the streets and make them feel un-supported. It's demoralizing for the people overseas. Anyways that's all I have for now.

Nothing to Report

Well nothing to really report this week. Midterms came and went, I reffed some basketball, attended some class, went to the gym a few times, and watched my room mate become addicted to the humour of The Office. He's about 5 episodes away from having watched the entire series. Right now the official count is 28 days of class, not including weekends until exams. Am I excited? Yes. First year sucks and the sooner it is over for better or worse the happier I'll be even if it means that I'm in back at Farnham roasting in the sun under the weight of a rucksack, carrying a weapon, and playing army. That's all for me. No rants, ravings, or anything close to that this week.

Here is one of the many "Motivational posters" I enjoy and I decided to leave it out for you all. I had a great one about Canada, but it's definitely not appropriate for me to put on here. Oh and I have one more thing for you all to take a look at if you have high speed internet. Yet another video of my obstacle course. This video is from Army News. It focuses on the college but look out for the people clad in green going through the "Shit Pit". You might know one of them!
http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/LF/English/6_1_1_1.asp?id=2355

What a Break!!

Well for anyone wondering I've made it back to Kingston. I had an awesome break and can't wait to get back to Shoal Lake for another, though I don't know when that will be. I don't even know for how long, but I know it will be a gooder no matter what! Sadly I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see, but I got to see my family and some of the people I consider family even though we don't share any blood. Some highlights of the week:

- My delayed train, which left me marooned in Toronto on Friday night.

- Saturday! Picked up bright and early at the airport. Made it home despite the crappy roads, and with a small detour in Portage la Prairie. Then a good nap, supper, and then I was gone until Sunday at lunch time. Needless to say many a drink were consumed and it was small "family" reunion in the Shoal Lake Bar. Awesome band, and simply amazing to see some of my friends again and all the good towns people! Then it was off to Jordan's house for an exciting few hours. I even introduced Jordan's Mexican friends to Captain Blacks! Maybe not a healthy introduction but the odd cigar every now and then never hurt anyone. I woke up in another house the next morning but I remember it all and only paid for my fun with a headache and the desire to stay away from food.

- Sunday was Julie's birthday! Saw the family, and stuffed my face full of grub. I also got to hang out with my favourite cousin Austin!

- Monday was the ski trip to Assessippi with Allison, Jordan and company. Awesome day. Allison turned her snowboard into a tobbagan and just a damn good day outside in the fresh air.

- Tuesday, pretty boring for the first bit. Made a solo trip into Brandon for some stuff. Pretty boring, but then I ended up at Arnfinsons playing Guitar Hero with Skylar. Later that night I found myself in Rossburn Bar with Jordan and company. After a few rounds of pool, and me once again introducing the Mexicans to something new (Alexander Keith's beer), we found ourselves at Jordan's buddy's house introducing the Mexicans to snowmobiling. Then it was back to Shoal Lake with a small stop in a field to have some celebatory bottle rocket firing. Bottle rockets are the best fun I've had for $2.99 in a long time.

- After taking it easy Wednesday, Thursday was time for some action. After a stint as the guest of honor for my old cadet squadron banquet, it was off to Brandon for a night on the town. Jordan, the two Matts, and I attended the "Save a Bus, Ride a teacher social". It was also Matty's first night in the big city bar/club. We introduced him to Jagerbombs, and taxi rides. Very good night!

- Friday I made it home from Brandon. Visited my Grandparents, and finished my visiting rounds with a visit to Mark & Cyndy's.


I apologize to anyone I didn't get a chance to see! Hopefully I get lots of time in the summer and we'll catch up!!

Some Truth Via Email

This is just an interesting forward I got today from a friend of mine. I'm sure many of you have seen it or seen similiar but it's always true and always an entertaining read. FYI for anyone reading this who's not from Manitoba, it's a joke so don't take it to seriously.

Manitoba

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six
days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found Him, resting on the
seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have You been?"

God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed
downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made!"

Archangel Michael looked puzzled and asked, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, and I've put life on it.

I'm going to call it Earth, and it's going to be a place of great balance.

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth, "For example,

Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while
southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a
hotspot.

And over there I've placed a continent of white people, while over
here is a continent of black people." God continued, pointing to
different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and arid
while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel , impressed by God's work, then pointed to a large
land mass and said, "What's that one?"

"Ah," said God. "That's Manitoba , the most glorious place on
earth. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, sunsets and rolling hills. The
people from Manitoba are going to be modest, intelligent and humorous and
they are going to be found traveling the world.

They will be extremely sociable, hardworking and high achieving,
and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of
peace."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed,
"What about balance, God? You said there would be balance!"

God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the dingbats I'm putting
around them in Ontario & the U.S.

Only someone who has grown up in Manitoba will send this on.

Be Prepared to Read

Well I made it home......no thanks to VIA Rail. I've seen modes of transportation late before but no more then half an hour at most. Well that was until Friday night. My train out of K-town was two hours late, which resulted in the rebooking of my flight and becoming one of those people you see living in the airport. Big airports really should look into getting those lounges like the big truck stops have, because living in Wolfgang Puck's restaruant isn't my idea of a good time. Though because of this delay, I was able to experience the marvels of public transportation in Toronto. If The Weatherkans think Winnipeg is horrible, they should maybe consider writing a song about Toronto. I'd have to say there is little love in Toronto and I felt about as safe as I would walking downtown Winnipeg. So after some experimentation with the subway system, and the city buses I made it to Pearson Airport, where I then proceded to get the grand tour, because I got off at the wrong bus stop. Let's just say it was an adventure and a half, that lacked food and sleep. Eventually I made it to Manitoba, and eventually I made it back to home sweet home.

After a small nap, and the first long sleep I'd had in over a day I decided to hit up the town of Shoal Lake. Now I'm not going to brag but I've hit up a few places since discovering the greatness of a few good drinks. I've been to St. Catherines Street in Montreal, bar hopped in St. Jean, made it to Kingston's finest establishment the Ale House, saw some of the Winnipeg scene, got into the Hollydome in Yorkton, and seen the establishments of Brandon to many times to recall. Now all of those places were a blast, but small town Manitoba will always beat the big places even if small town Manitoba lacks girls for me to get shot down by. Let's just say my return to Shoal Lake, was a good one and I'm lucky to have felt so good when I woke up on a floor that was not even entered into the equation at the start of the night.

You could say I feel the same feelings for Shoal Lake and its bar as Toby Keith when he sings "I Love this Bar." I remember saying something about that lastnight when I was downing the gin like tomorrow wasn't going to happen with my old high school friend, who also agreed that despite its lack of change that Shoal Lake is a great place. I think we both agreed to retire here and spend our retirement hunting and fishing.

So no post would be complete without me complaining about something. This complaint I'm about to make is something I've mentioned before. Making out. Like everyone else with a properly working jaw, a tongue, and clean mouth I like it. What I don't like is when people are doing it in public. Now I'm sure all you people guilty of it love each other or think you love each other or what ever. Does that mean you need to make out in the train station, the airport, the subway, the bar, or some other public venue? No I don't think so. It sorta's the same concept as "I enjoy talking to my friends, but I don't in class" or "I like to party and have a few drinks but I don't do it on Mainstreet or in front of the Mounties." Catch my drift? Save that for the privacy of anywhere but a public place, because I'd hate for you public kissers to get stupid and brave and do something I'd rather see even less.

What else is there to say. Life at RMC is good, though holidays are nice. Last weekend was Westpoint Weekend, which is where people from Annapolis come to visit.......not! Westpoint Weekend is the traditional weekend exchange of Canada and America's finest officer cadets between RMC and Westpoint (US Military Academy aka the US Army equivelant of RMC). That was a fun weekend, it's very entertaining to see people dressed in clothes meant for downtown Baghdad walking around in a foot of snow. It's also interesting to meet our American brothers/sisters in arms and hear what their lives are like at Westpoint. In other news RMC stomped Queens at snow sculpting and I played a small part in it. That's all folks, I'm off to enjoy my semaine de relache while it lasts, because I won't be getting anymore for awhile!

What does a calculus professor talk about at a party?

So it's been awhile since I've said much and I could go off on multiple tangents tonight or this morning or what ever time of the day it is. I refuse to go on tangents though, because the word tangent only reminds me of things such as linear algebra, calculus, and my new bestest best friend Engineering Graphics. Hopefully the sarcasm came through on the bestest best friend part. The class is my Friday afternoon reminder of why I must get out of engineering. I can't draw pictures (surprise surprise I think I won a grand total of $1 in about 6 years of submitting art for the Shoal Lake Fair) and I hate drawing pictures (probably why very few of my school notes have drawings on them, unless I was thinking about flying and then I drew pictures of wings and weather systems). Yeah I'm a nerd in the areas of Theory of Flight and Meteorology. I didn't know drawing could be so hard, but it is, and it reminds me that I don't want to spend my life drawing pictures of things and then watching people take 5 years longer then they were given to build the damn thing, which will most likely be smaller then the piece of paper it was drawn on and most likely make a mechanic, electrician, plumber or other trademen wish they'd never slept with the engineer's wife. Fortunately I should be able to switch to something more wordy once this semester is over and my trade is changed to something more along my lines of a good time.

So I promised to not go off on any tangents, so I'll just go off on a rant. Reffing! I'd like to take this oppurtunity to apologize to every referee I have ever lipped off, and I'm not gonna lie the list is probably long. I was voluntold to be a basketball ref this semester. In actuality I've succumbed to a genetic disease passed down to me from my mother. We'll call it the "yeah sure, volunteering for that can't be too bad" disease. I love you Mom, but you know you have that disease. So that's how I fell into the trap of reffing basketball. Probably the most stressful sport for reffing, and I land the gig despite my warning that I know nothing about basketball and even less about reffing. So here I am reffing basketball, and taking crap left, right, and center. I don't think I'll ever treat a ref poorly again now that I know what they go through. So I guess you could call that my life lesson of the week.

I also got my posting messages for the summer. Sounds like May, and June will be spent in the wilds of Quebec once again learning the skills necessary to be an officer in the military and sweating out every ounce of liquid in my body all while cursing the humidity of central Canada. Then the month of July and possibly August, will be spent parler français dans à Kingston ou St. Jean.

Anyways that's all for now. Oh but I have a question. What does a calculus professor talk about at a party? Integrals, derivatives, imaginary numbers? Or something else? Just wondering because I know farmers talks about farming, salesman talk about sales, grain buyers talks about grain buying, doctors talk about medicine, teachers talk about teaching, etc, etc. I also know I just listed about 10 stereotypes, but they're true in a way.

TDV!

Deployment

When I'm not studying I enjoy reading up on a lot of things. The news being one of them. I feel it's important to know what's going on in the world. As some of you may know the 2PPCLI and elements of the RCHA (Royal Canadian Horse Artillery) from Shilo are deploying next month to Afghanistan. This is the largest deployment from Shilo so far in the conflict and I urge you all to start slapping the "Support Our Troops" ribbons on your vehicles. If you need help getting ribbons then I might be able to help, so just let me know! To read about the deployment click on the link below. There's also a video with the story if you look around the page the story is on.

To read: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080119/shilo_sendoff_080119/20080119?hub=Canada


In other news. Yesterday I was able to attend a session with Senator Romeo Dallaire or as some of you may know him LGen Dallaire. He was at RMC to discuss Canada's role in the world as a middle power and other world issues. Very good speaker!

3 Pillars down 1 to go!

So I'll try to keep this short, because it's more informative then anything intelligent or argumentative. So as some of you know RMC works on the four pillar system (academics, bilingualism, athletics, and military). As some of you may also know, I've been struggling to keep afloat in some of the pillars. Not going to lie. But today I conquered one more of the pillars. The military pillar has been conquered mostly since the day I got here. My previous room mate and I were masters at the art of being inspected. I will someday make a good wife as the joke goes, because I can dust, sweep, iron, and polish with the best of them. The bilingualism pillar, is on track to be conquered eventually and so in my opinion not something I'm struggling with. After today however only academics falls under the struggling category and it's being worked on.

Why only academics now in the stuggling category? Well today I conquered the PPT, which is the RMC fitness test or as one person I know calls it the CF Express (fitness test to be considered fit for military service in all branches and areas of the Canadian Forces) on steroids. The reason being for the increased standards? Officers lead from the front. Anyways enough is enough with me explaining boring acronyms. I passed the PPT. I finally got myself to do the pushups I needed to do. Yes even a body like mine struggles with some areas of fitness as do the bodies of most people floating around the 6'3'', 205lb range at least when it comes to pushups or as they're called in Quebec extensions des bras! Anyways one less worry for me. Now I'm a basketball ref for intramurals (my contribution to the intramural program). Tomorrow I begin learning how to ref, which is good because most of the stuff I know about basketball comes from TV and my high school coaches who learned it all from the "Dummies Guide to Basketball" book.

Until next time Per ardua ad astra!

Back to school

I don't have a whole lot to write at the moment. I had a lot of ideas but nothing that I think I can effectively materialize. This last week went really fast. Made it back to Kingston last Sunday afternoon. Monday we were back to class, and I found out that I really need to get my butt in gear. Last semester was a bit rougher then even I anticipated, but after talking to some people I discovered that's a popular trend with some students coming out of rural Manitoba/Saskatchewan, and the Maritimes. So I'm back to giving it 120% and working my butt off. Switched rooms on Thursday. I unfortunately lost my view of Kingston and the causeway. It was replaced with the ability to watch everyone in the drinking mess and listen to everyone who runs up the stairs drunk on a Saturday night. On the brightside I've got a good room mate. Friday morning we had to clean out the squadron storage room. We found stuff in there that belonged to people who graduated 2-3 years ago. In fact someone is missing an entire suitcase of civilian clothes. Since all this stuff was up for grabs my room mate and I grabbed a bunch. We ended up with some of those folding camp chairs so now we sit around in our room doing home work and reading in camp chairs. I do this while sipping on apple juice from a beer glass to pretend like I'm partying when in actuality I'm stuck doing school work. He also picked himself up a blender from the storage room and we got a few basketballs.

Oh remember how I was trying to pick up in the bar using French? Well my French teacher asked us if we practiced our French over Christmas and was proud to hear I spoke some for about 5 minutes in the bar. I didn't mention that I was trying to pick up with it though........

In other freakish news I was reading in a men's magazine about a surgery a person can get for their ears. We all know some people like to put those weird grommet things in their ears and weird piercings, but what do Star Trek and Lord of the Rings fans get done to theirs? They get the tips of their ears surgically enhanced or changed to be pointy like those of their favourite Vulcan or Elf. Personally not my thing, the surgery looks painful (having the tips of your ears stitched together!). More on this and other odd body modifications at www.stevehaworth.com

Well that's all for me right now! Keep on rocking in the free world and if you live in Manitoba I'll be seeing you in a few weeks (yes I realize I just got back to Ontario) when I'm back in the Keystone province for Spring Break/Reading week!