Blogging, it wasn't that bad

Well this quarter has been different to say the least. I was completely against the use of blogs, because until now they seemed to be a waste of time. I’m not going to lie though because keeping up on this thing (my blog) was been a pain in the butt. I can now appreciate the use of blogs in my free time now, because I enjoy the atmosphere of blogs in herpetology of the study of repltiles. I would say I like blogs about the Marines or the military but I would be lying, because if there is any negatives posts about the Corps. I become irate.

So I just decide to not even look at hot topics like politics, and just look at things that I enjoy. This way just works better for me. I have even made new contacts with others that get deals on animals and enclosures, which is nice because that stuff gets pricey. But back on the subject I did find it hard to find things to talk about in my blog about me joining the Marines so I used the next best thing I talked about the things that are happening in my life that can create stress. These things like girls, animals, and grades have helped shape almost half of my blogs. I guess one thing that I think would have been neat is to see what the outside world had to say about my blogs. Like I said I enjoy the blogosphere, and people’s constructive criticism.

Final Thought

As I come closer to joining the Marines, some anxiety is expected, and I just want to see if I can get a sneak peek of what’s to come in boot camp. So I Google blog search “Marine boot camp” and find video clips from potpiegirl‘s blog at clipclip.org that are exactly what I was looking for. Blogging makes little things like wanting to know what boot camp is like possible. These days you can find anything you want on the internet whether you have a Barbie collection and need a special dress that only was available for a month, or want questions about something in the military answered. Whatever you could possibly want is on the internet with the use of web logging (blogging), and now with more people than ever in the blogging world you can even listen to people’s personal problems if you’re interested. The possibilities are endless in this whole other world (wide web). Having all of this information from other people like ourselves makes for lots of biased opinions, but makes for more down-to-earth realizations like people that were at one point just as clueless about Barbie but now know everything there is to know, and can help teach you the Barbie world.

My thoughts on blogging at first were that blogging was pointless and had no significance. But now I see that it’s a great tool if you need to look something up or just want someone else’s ideas or thoughts on the subject. This is one of the things that I love about blogging is the people helping each other. You don’t get the sense of helping from the general public, but in blogs people for the most part must want to help everyone else understand what it is you’re looking for. For instance girlzippy at livejournal.com has a question about raising her savannah monitor, and because I have success with raising my monitor I can give her some insight as to what her monitor’s problem is. When my reptiles have a problem I can find plenty of people that are more than willing to talk my ear off about any reptile of I may have accumulated because of the blogging process. People that blog are looking to learn from or help others by commenting back and forth. This commenting helps build authority which helps determine how much you blog and your status in the blogosphere.

These examples are ok but what happens when the blog is slanted and totally neglects the other side of the argument. “The weblog's greatest strength — it’s uncensored, unmediated, uncontrolled voice — is also its greatest weakness” said in Rebecca Bloods book The Weblog Handbook. This leads to the comments being biased. This happens more often in posts about politics or current events which seem to mesh together most of the time anyways. In the blog Flopping Aces seven authors write about current events, and much like I would they side with the military. They covered the Berkeley incident about the Marines being unwanted and uninvited while recruiting in the schools. These seven have nothing but bad to say about the city council in Berkeley because of the actions they took against the Marines. This is how blogging can be repetitive and bias because at another blog everyone might be supportive of this kind of behavior. Although, in search of a blog in favor of Berkeley’s decision has been fruitless, and it’s not because I didn’t look hard enough believe me I would love to hear the argument. Most of the posts in favor of code pink have been bombarded by comments from the individuals that are pro-militaristic and are accused for treason in other words they have been turned into an “echo chamber”. This topic is an excellent way to show how blogging can potentially be one sided.

But besides how politics and current events in blogs are handled the main focus is to help others, not cut each other down. Now that I have worked with blogs and understand they can be useful in certain situations. If I feel that they are an excellent way to broadcast your voice, and listen to others that do the same. So now maybe I can start that Barbie collection I always wanted.

The things left behind

So with all of this talk about joining the Marines I have just realized I have to give up another thing that and will almost be as hard to give up as the girls, it‘s raising animals. It sounds lame but I wanted to start breeding reptiles for fun. There is some money in it, but I would mainly do it for the love of the animals. There is something about these little critters that bring enjoyment in just having around them around. My normal day totally revolves around feeding and the general care taking for them (2 roach colonies 5 mice colonies 1 rat colony 1 savannah monitor 1 bearded dragon and an iguana and a few more to come). It sounds like a lot but it really isn’t that bad if you enjoy doing it. I have actually applied for a part time job in the animal dept. in the local pet store on top of the part time job I already have in the cafeteria, because I like taking care of animals that much. But none the less I am totally committed to joining the Marine Corps. I feel that even though I with miss having pets (they are not allowed in the barracks) the Marines is the best choice for my future. Maybe after I will continue will this idea if I’m still interested in the hobby.

sorry the post is late my Internet is lame and is completely undependable

Sanity

So coming to the realization that I might not pass my SOC 410 I am mentally preparing for moving back home. It’s been over a year since being under my parent’s roof, and they will have some control over me again. I’m not exactly ready for it because I have realized that living away from them made our relationship stronger, but even when I go to visit for a weekend enough is enough. So then I head back to little Newark, my peaceful place. As much as I complain about being stuck in this shanty town it has grown on me. When I move back I have to find homes for all of my pets that I have, get a” real job” not the cafeteria, and get my license back. Because if I have to deal with my family for too long I’ll be so crazy the Marines won’t even want me.

Good news is that if I move back home nothing will be in my way of being a Marine, because if I don’t have the stress of school on shoulders I will be do anything necessary. Also the “real job” I will obtain will be a union commercial insulating job that starts at $11 an hour. My parents have been pushing this job on me since I said that I’m going to join. But even now I’m trying my hardest to pull this off and keep my pets and my sanity.

the guest blogs

I found in Chase Hardwick’s post the guest writer was more of a joking funny guy compared to Doc Hardwick’s more informal type of posts. He did well by staying with the theme of Doc Hardwick and found a study that showed that in “moderation” (this is a different meaning to everyone) alcohol is beneficial to ones health. But the picture was the main tip off that gave away the fact that it wasn’t Doc speaking in the post. Because if Doc would have done the post the picture would have been something like a rotten liver or a cat scan of an alcoholic’s brain something that wasn’t a joke about drinking. Other than the joking and the picture that the guest decided to pick he (I figured out who it was because of these things) did very well by sticking to Doc’s format of doing things.

Before November

So while I was talking to the councilor on campus for my alcohol abuse problem, that is court ordered if you’re wondering. I was told two things one being that I have to raise my GPA to a 2.2 instead of the 2.0 that I previously thought. That took the wind out of my sails just a little bit. So now I have to get a high B in English and a high D in Sociology. Sociology is the problem because at this point I need; a 90% on a research paper and a 100% on the rest of my available points. The second thing I was told was that I should join as soon as possible because in November if a Democratic wins the election it will become harder to enlist because the war will end, and the men will not be needed. This information was told to my councilor by a Colonel in the Army. So I now have a deadline which works for me because I’m a procrastinator and will wait forever to do something. That something being actually following though with talking to my lawyer ($180 an hour), setting up how I’m going to get off probation, and paying a $7200 balance on my court fees.

If anyone else thinks they have it bad I honestly would love to hear from someone that is just a touch more miserable than I am. It might make me feel better. lol

So...

I have no idea what to write about. I'm so stressed out about my class (SOC 410). It’s killing me. If I fail my financial aid will drop me, and I can't drop it because I have only taken 10 credit hours this quarter and if I stoop below 6 I lose the aid. So... I'm stressed and have forgotten about everything else, but why Sutherlands theory of Differential Association and why white-collar crimes are committed. So I am apologizing ahead of time for neglected posts.

Crazies

So now that I have my heart set on join the Marine Corps all of the crazies are started to come out of the wood work. Like for example a few girls I dated in high school are now trying to talk to me again because they caught wind of the fact that I’ll be gone for at least four years. That’s sort of odd to me because these are the same girls that threatened me with every possible thing they could, and then said things like “I hope you die tomorrow “or “my brother is going to kill you”. Those lame threats always made me laugh but now I’m sort of worried these girls have not talked to me in two and a half years. So why now do they want to make up? Mind you they truly are crazy. Like sit in the bushes in front of your house and stab you crazy. I was at one point stalked by one girl so badly that she would drive past my house to see if my car was there, or if any other cars (like another girls) were there. If she didn’t see my car she would call all of my friends that she knew and interrogate them about my were-bouts. I know this doesn’t have too much to do with my blog, but it relates in the fact that, because I’m joining these nut cases won’t stop calling me.

this art work is Bjorn Hartfelt at http://randomstuff.bjuhn.com/stalker.png

Damn mice

So for anyone that doesn't know I have 2 lizards and 2 snakes. The 2 lizards are a Savannah monitor and a big ass iguana. The monitor eats 4-5 mice a week. The snakes are ball pythons and the smaller one is a 1.5 ft long and the other is 3ft long. The small snake eats one mouse a week and the big one eats a medium rat. So I breed mice to keep the cost of feeding them down, because 6 mice a week is $9 that's starts to add up quickly.



So I was woke up by the squeaks of mice. So when I looked to see if maybe one of the snakes got into the tank. I found them doing what they do, each other.

I have decided

So I have decided that that I'm going to stay for sure. It will be the best thing for me because of a number of different reasons. My Great-grandfather getting sick has opened my eyes a little bit. I realize that I need to stick around for the time being. I don’t want him to pass away while I am in another country. I know that my family would understand if I was gone, but it means a lot to me that I stay. Also my mom and her boyfriend of 8 years just got married. I suspect that the reason they did it so suddenly is because I told them I want to join. And on top of those respectable reasons I can’t forget the ladies. I’m going to miss the college life in that sense. But I’m going to suck it up, and serve my country. So now I feel obligated to stay. So my recruiter is just going to have to wait until I’m ready.

Anyone that wants to learn more about the Corps http://http://www.marines.com/page/usmc.jsp?flashRedirect=true

My Crazy Night

There are some problems that keep proving to be a real nuisance in my journey towards joining the Marine Corps. To start I have a drug offense from when I was a minor which holds me back from enlistment bonuses and certain jobs. Secondly, but more important is that I have an OVI and a use of a vehicle without permission hanging over my head. Those two are the reasons I can’t join tomorrow; because in order to join I have to be off probation, and to be off probation I have to pay off my fines, which are somewhere around $7800. This is the craziest night of my life’s story. Some would say that stealing a car is a bad thing, but I like to think of it as a good thing. During the summer after high school graduation, I slowly developed a drinking problem. Not only did I have a problem with stopping, I black out when I drank because my body doesn’t metabolize alcohol properly.

So with that said one of the many crazy nights my friends and I had, Adam, a kid I grew up with, told me about a party with some people that I don’t really get along with. But being a tough guy and knowing that my friends are tougher than anyone around I foolishly decided to go. Adam decided to drive because I didn’t have any gas so we took his Del Sol. We got to the apartment just in time for a couple of people fighting outside with the rest of the party watching, and some way or another I got sucked into it. So I proved myself because I had a reputation to uphold and I did this without even throwing a punch. I could have let it go and kept walking, but I knew that the kids that I didn’t get along with were watching and if I didn’t want to get beat up by a group of kids, I needed to prove that there was a reason no one messed with me. So I pushed the kid into the bushes in front of the apartment and acted like I was a tough guy, and made him leave the party on the spot. Everyone that watched showed signs of approval by looking and smiling, which cut the hostility in half.

I tried to get along with everyone that night because everyone was drinking and smoking. The living room was fogged out with weed smoke, and everyone was yelling because the music was so loud. Beer cans were scattered though the entire apartment you could that’s all they did was party. I kept running into people that I haven’t seen in a while but eventually made it to the little balcony on the second floor of the town house only to find Adam with a case of beer with him and a bag of weed with two other people out with him. The two people were a guy hitting on some ugly girl that had a bottle of Jose Curevo. After sweet talking her she kindly let me drink some and that’s the last thing I remember from that night. I blacked out and did my usual “shit-talking” about how tough I was, only to trade punches with some kid that missed my arm and hit my ribs and bruised them. It hurt so bad I came out of my black out for a second but fell back into it. From this point on I was told I then started to hit on someone’s girlfriend, which isn’t too hard to believe because I’m like that. But the problem was that it was the kid that owned the apartment and was the ring leader of the kids that already didn’t like me. So I got taken outside by three guys and they are talking about fighting, but won’t fight me because they know would have happened. They would have to deal with a kid that’s like my brother and he is the definition of badass because with it came down to it he would send someone to the hospital for me. So these wimps end up just yelling and calling me every name in the book but never laid a hand on me. They eventually chase me out, and my lame ass friend Adam waits forty-five minutes to look for me, and at this point it’s probably 3:30 am. Adam is an idiot so he just says screw it and goes home not giving me any thought after looking for me for about ten minutes.

At 6:30am the apartment manager of the complex I was partying at finds me in a ravine with a wrecked truck and I’m covered in mud and still drunk. I don’t remember much because I was still that drunk and my vision was blurry so I couldn’t see anything. But I do remember the manager said “you’re going to jail kid” and I asked why he replied “you stole that truck”. I was thinking in my head no way I never do anything like that when I black out. I stood up on the pavement and realized I was missing a shoe. The only thing running in my head was I have to get out of here before the cops come, but I was just too drunk the manger grabs me by the back of the neck and sits me down. I passed out on the curb and waited for the cops only to fail the sobriety field tests with flying colors. I then received a breathalyzer at the police station at 9:45 and blew a .158 BAC. I was sent to jail and sobered up at about 3:30pm. I ended up working up the nerve to call my mother, who was crying her eyes out and already had called a lawyer for me. Mr. Spears my lawyer was able to get me out of the jail the next day on a signature bond because my family is broke and couldn’t afford the $1000 bail.

After that I realized I had a problem, and decided to quit before I killed someone or myself. It is a shame that it took something so drastic to open my eyes, but I’m grateful no one got hurt. And even now a year and a half later I am still paying for it because now I can’t get enlistment bonuses and certain jobs are restricted to me just because a stupid night of partying. But if this didn’t happen to me I would probably still be drinking and I have heard stories about marines getting demoted or even dishonorable discharge for doing dumb things while drunk. So this turned out to be a bitter sweet story because of course it sucks that I have to pay out all of this money and have to be on probation but on the other side I never would have stopping drinking and could have killed someone or myself.

Decisions

So I have been thinking lately about staying in school till summer for a couple of different reasons.

First being that I need to spend some more time with the people that care about me and that don’t want me to leave like my mom and couple of my good friends. My decision to join was a surprise to all of these people. I didn’t tell anyone I was thinking about it, because they would have shot me down early on. I now realize what I’m putting this people through because someone close to me almost broke down and started to cry because I’ll be leaving for good, and not coming back. My other reason isn’t quite as thoughtful.

Second I’m sucking up all of the time I can with girls because in the marines the girl to guy ratio is about 1/6. This is really the only thing that makes me second think the armed forces.

On the subject of armed forces in general, my reply to money maker is not to get the Marines and the Army mixed up. That’s like a slap in the face to anyone that is a Marine, and the Marine that hears you will correct you on the spot. With that said I have respect for anyone that services their country, but I have much more respect for Rangers, Seals, and Marines. For anyone who didn’t know, the main four different branches of armed forces are Air Force, Navy, Army, and Marine Corp but if you want to get technical the Marines is a department of the Navy. The subject of my reputation doesn’t matter because most people that join are people that have no other way out of their crapy little town, so they join the service to be able to amount to something without a college education. And about my leg, if I can’t handle my own training those D.I.s (drill instructors) are going to tear me apart. So I think I will just deal with it till boot camp is over.

Restrictions

I am having a hard time with getting a loan because I just don’t understand too much about the process. I have been looking on the internet and I went to a couple of banks but nothing has been helpful yet. This is a little discouraging but it happens I put myself in this situation so I have to just press through. Maybe someone can give me some direction in this area.
My work out is going smoothly for the most part. I squat 425lbs mind you I only go to a right angle because of bad knees which I never told my recruiter about on purpose (shh later in life the government will pay to fix that). I also picked up a new workout partner it’s a friend of mine that is a soccer player that’s now a little out of shape but should still be able to keep up with me. He is going to come in handy for pushing my times in the three mile run. I’m really looking forward to working out with him.
One problem is my back doesn’t seem like it is as strong as it once was, but I think it is partially because I have been slacking when shoulder and back day rolls around. So for my own good I have to take that day seriously, and not slack if I plan on getting to the perfect PFT

Joining

I have a lot to do before I join for example I have to be off probation which creates a whole new problem. The process of getting off probation includes paying my fines which currently is about $7800 so I'm going to take out a student loan while I'm still a student for $10,000. So I'm stressed about this; who knew it would so hard to join the armed forces. With that said I also have a waiver that holds me back from me doing the jobs that I would like to do like Special Forces. I wanted to be force recon more than anything, but due to my stupidity as a minor I now have to pay the consequences. I also don't receive any incentives such as enlistment bonuses because of the waiver. I really have my mind set on this, even without those things or my parents support.
My workout is broken down a little differently than a normal poolee (a marine recruit waiting for boot camp) might do it. I’m determined to get a perfect 300 on the PFT (physical fitness test). With my major in college being exercise science and being a wanna be body builder I know a thing or two about working out. My work out is for now heavy lifting because I need to be able to do twenty pull ups for a perfect PFT among other things. Also in boot camp a lot a brute strength is needed for things like being able to pick up and fire man carry a fellow recruit and his M16 in the allowed time. I also know that I have some time before I have to condition my body for all of the running. Later in the following months I am going to work myself up to run over ten miles so boot camps eight mile hump will be no problem.

Me

I am a male student at OSU Newark but have recently realized that I want to join the USMC (United States Marine Corps). In the last month I have been conditioning myself for the physical aspect of boot camp and the Marine life style. The mental side I think will be much harder, because it fascinates me to see how far a human can be pushed before giving up, I can’t wait to push myself farther than I have ever been pushed. The people I look up to are oddly enough my ex-girlfriends dad and my friend Joe who are both Marines. Charles my ex-girlfriend’s father is an O-5 Lieutenant Colonel which is a high ranking officer is one hell of a marine and is now in Germany at an Army Base one of six marines to say he got that job is amazing, but now he has been promoted to the Commander of the African Continent which means all of the guards (marines)at the US embassy's he is now in charge of. To get that job he has just received only 18% of the marines that qualify are even looked at so to say he made the cut is remarkable. I have nothing but respect for him and hope one day I can amount to what he is. If you have any interest in the Marines as a civilian or as a poolee this might be something you may want to read