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!

Here's to hoping I didn't waste all my creative writing skills on the facebook walls of my ex-girlfriends!

Well here's to hoping the above title doesn't come true in this latest issue of "Brad's Thoughts and Stories"! One note on the above title is that what was written on the Facebook walls of those two ex-girlfriends was 100% friendly in nature. Though the possibility of me pushing the envelope of my humour and their acceptance of it is something that has crossed my mind in the 5 minutes following the 3000 words of glory I spelt across Kaitlan and Allison's walls. I'm not here to debate it though.

Let me get through the typical post being made by most people involved in the blogging trend at this time of year. Christmas is great, I love my family, it was great to see them, I got amazing gifts, the food was too good, I'm happy I've been having the oppurtunities to see my friends, some more of that jazz, and some etc. to conclude. I think that's all that needs to be said on the topic, if those facts are appreciated. I know I appreciate all of what I said, because there is a possibility that someday I will be unable to enjoy all of that because of my career, so I enjoy it as much as I can now.

So what have I been doing with my days lately? Well some people would call my brand of fun horrible. Each to their own I guess. Stumbling around in hijacked house coats with an old buddy from high school and probably making a fool of myself isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea. I personally had fun and ensured that the house coat was returned to its rightful owner. I just hope I didn't promise to be the DD in that stupor I was in. So far only my Ma and Pa have mentioned anything regarding that and they heard it through the floorboards in the middle of the night so we can't take it for 100% certainty. We all know that the physics of the waves involved could have been heavily influenced from the floor boards which would have caused a great deal of interference.

That was the pinnacle of my 3 day expedition of fun beginning with the socializing I partook in with my adult friends. Good times were of course had with them. More fun ensued the next night when I finally stormed into SL bar (about time they opened up! I've been legal a long freaking time). Later that night I stormed into Houstons. Where I was reunited with old high school chums and proceded to make lame pickup attempts on girls I hope were cute (I'm just not big on committment, but chatting the ladies up is still on my list of fun things to do). I proceded to try and pickup using my newly acquired skills in the French language. First of all French doesn't impress Anglo girls and it sure doesn't impress the only 3 Franco sisters in the bar. I got a number, but I don't think it was the cute sister's and a follow up date is not required at all. Return to the previous paragraph for the night that followed. Let us not discuss the day that followed that night though. There was a small concern that solid food might not like me anymore.

Hopefully I have not disgusted you at all. If this blog was all about respectable pursuits such as academics and athletics, I'd have a hell of a time making that 1 in a million interesting post. It is once again late (recurring theme. Me using ( ) and me posting at the stupidest hours of the night/morning). Bonne nuit, I've got to rest before I attend the reincarnation of the annual Shoal Lake tradition of a social on Boxing Day.

My Thoughts on Home

So it's been just under a week since I made my return back to Manitoba. In that time I managed to leave the country for two days, but I also formulated some thoughts/opinions on the place I thought about returning to many a night when I was cuddled up to my rifle or later on cursing a textbook in both official languages (it's how I practice my French). So I'm not 100% where to start with this explanation of my feelings concerning my old stomping grounds back here in the Keystone province.

Let me begin with the word change. Now it is to late at night for me to pull out the dictionary and define the word change so hopefully you all know the meaning while I take you on the trip that will become a rant. When I begun packing and generally just getting excited about coming home on leave, I became concerned about how things probably changed a great deal since I left. Much to my surprise when I took my first big excursion into Shoal Lake I made a discovery. Nothing has changed, and that goes for everything. Sure some people have made some modifications to their lifestyle, but nothing major. Buildings have been built, knocked down, etc but once again nothing major. In reality nothing has changed though. Now part of that lack of change in this place is great. It means nothing bad has happened, though the downside is that nothing overly exciting has happened. The only thing that's changed in the past 6 months is myself. Now I'm not complaining about the lack of change in my old territory, but the fact that it irritates me in some unexplainable way has solidified my decisions about life and how I enjoy being somewhere with an unpredictable rate of change. The military obviously being a fountain of change and place for a great amount of growth as I've already discovered. I'm not sure if I made any sense at all with that, but I feel I have been able to relay some sort of message.

Now I'm going to answer a question a great deal of people have asked me and probably shock some people with my opinion on the matter. No I have not found a girl in Ontario. Have I been looking? Not at all. I don't have the time for it. Plus I don't need to have to worry about a girl at this stage of my life. I've got plenty of worries with school let alone the few million other things I enjoy having piled on me by my school. Sure a girlfriend would be loads of fun but all that lovey dovey crap isn't for me at this time in my life. FYI: not tons of fun, because I'm not into those sorta girls. FYI Pt 2: I'm not trying to be a downer on lovey dovey crap, but really does it get you anywhere of great importance at age 19? The morale of this story though?! I have no time for a girlfriend and unlike the past refuse to make the effort to make time for one. Mon career dans une force de aerienne est très importante pour moi! See I can even cobble together enough French to express myself!

*Editor's note: This post is by no means a series of complaints but simply an explanation of some of my recent thoughts.
**Editor's note: There is no editor!!
***Hopefully I don't have to take back any of these non-wise words anytime soon.

1 week

1 week from now I will be sitting in the living room of my basement watching TV, after having eaten my mother's cooking. It will be epic and I'm incredibly excited. I'm so excited I can't get to sleep at night. That is all.

Study Break

Well I'm taking some of my well deserved study break time to write possibly my last blurb before I hit Manitoban soil again.

Well so far this week, I've wrote my first two university exams. Now I could make some nasty references to describe how I feel about them, but that would not be befitting of me to do on this so very public medium. However I will still express my feelings on them. English was what I started my finals with. I wouldn't call it one of my finer pieces of work, but in the end what I studied was on it, so let us hope that my professor likes what I talked about otherwise I'm in doodoo. Chemistry was exam number two, and my first experience of writing in your classic university environment of a big hall, filled with row upon row of students utterly confused at the material they thought they knew from hour upon hour of studying. I don't feel grand about the exam but for some reason I came out of the exam quite calm in comparison to my comrades, who weren't. The irony of that is, that during midterms it was the other way around. It appears that I've become calm and comfortable with the fact that what ever happens, happens. All for some reason and at the end of the day something will work out. Plans might have to be adjusted but you just need to roll with it.

4 more to go! The brightside! One is open book and it has been discovered I only need 10% on the final to pass the course (so if the crap hits the fan, I'll still make it through), one is an arts course that I'm kicking ass in, and the other two are all year so if I screw up now I still have one more shot to redeem myself (or so I'm told). You know me though, I always manage to pull something off and I plan on continuing that strong tradition.

On a lighter note. Have any of you seen the Victoria Secret's Fashion Show? I haven't watched the entire thing. I'll be doing that when I get home. That's not the point however. Did anyone see the Spice Girls bit? Is it just me or have they not all aged as finally as expected. Scary Spice can actually claim to be scary now. Just my two cents on them. On the bright side though they can still perform well!

Today's fun fact: 8 days till I place my feet on the sub-arctic soil of the motherland or I guess I could call it Manitoba.

Global Warming

Well I don't have much time to ridicule this funny but true story so I'll let you form your own opinions. I know for a fact it is true, because the fridges back home that hold that beautiful brown beverage full of nutrition, fun, and the ability to make everyone look beautiful are ancient and most likely leaking harmful gases into the atmosphere causing global warming. But at least my beverages are cold!

Here's the link:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313844,00.html

RMC - 1 Civilian Universities - 0

Watch the first few minutes or so of this Coach's Corner. I don't think I need to say anything more about my institution's greatness.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hnic/coachscorner/2007/11/defensive_turnovers_are_killin.html

À la base des Forces canadiennes Trenton

So here I am in Trenton! 3 Navigator tests and 2 simulator sessions down. I only have 2 more sim sessions left and hopefully after that I find out that I passed both my nav and pilot tests. If that's the case then it's all up to my eyes after that!

I'm loving Trenton. I've got my own hotel room, the food here is restaraunt quality despite being massed produced. Probably, because military cooks put max effort in, otherwise they would be blading their buddies. I look out my window and I get more excited then I would be if I was walking into a room full of girls. All I see from my room is hangars, Hercs, and the C17 Globemaster. It's more beautiful then anything I've seen before. 4 jet engines and the capacity to move a lot of stuff. Let's just say Dad would be out of a job with Millers if I had one of those sweet birds. Shoal Lake would have to beef up their airport and someone might have to donate another quarter section for it. I can also see from my window an Antonov. Not sure if it's a full blown Antonov or just a baby, either way it's awesome. To bad the CF won't spring for a couple of those. Other things I can see are the Challenger (the kickass private jet that MPs, ministers, the prime minister, Governor General, and other people get to fly around in), the Polaris (Airbus transport plane used to transport troops back and forth between Canada and Afghanistan) and the CF Land Advanced Warfare Center, which is just a building but from what I can tell is the home of the jump school. I'm pretty sure I was disturbed from my sleep at about 0600 this morning by the jumpers doing pushups in the parking lot. It's safe to assume that they weren't doing normal pushups either. I'm going to assume they were doing airborne pushups, which is an excercise in teamwork. What I mean by that is that the platoon, flight, section, or what ever the unit maybe called lines up. The only person with their feet on the ground is the guy at the back. Everyone else's feet are on the shoulders of the person behind them. If you don't all push up at the same time then it's a difficult excercise for the entire team.

All in all I would love to be posted to Trenton in 4 years time or for On the Job Training. The simulator sessions are going good or so I believe from what I understand from the readouts it gives after each session. The Navigator tests were easy but because of the time restriction, nearly impossible. So hopefully I made it through them! Anyways I'm gonna head off for some lunch before my next sim session, then I think I'm gonna take a walk around to see what else is kicking on base.

Trenton

So next week I'm off to lovely CFB Trenton or at least I hear it's lovely. The point of my week long trip?! Drum roll please........Aircrew Selection or for those of you not in the loop with all the military jargon/lingo a week of testing for anyone trying to get a position as a member of an Aircrew on a Canadian Forces aircraft. What this all means for me: I know for sure I'm going to be tested as an Air Navigator but it sounds like I'll have a shot at being tested for pilot!! Though if I make it through the testing for pilot I still have to pass the vision test, which most likely will be a problem but hey you never know there's a possibility. Then again I could be going to Trenton just for the Air Nav test. But let's hope it's for both, that I pass the sim tests, and that through some miracle my eyes are on their game the day of the vision test.