24/7

You don't often think about the Army being a 24/7 operation till your chain of command ask you to stay up 24 hours pulling CQ (Charge of Quarters) duty. It was all right though. I got a little reading in, studied some EFMB (Expert Field Medical Badge) material, and watched movies - awful movies. "28 Days Later" looked cool in the previews, always a bad sign you know, and someone from the Slate Movie Club just loved it; so of course I hated it. I don't think it was necessarily a bad movie, it just wasn't to my taste. The movie started off badly for me, I got anxious waiting for the dude to run into living people and I hated the ragged way he looked. I think the problem was that the movie was shot with British tastes in mind. The story takes place in London, the lead character speaks with a sometimes unintelligible British (I'd say cockney but I am not sure) accent, and the filmmaker was British (Danny Boyle, director of "Trainspotting".) If it had been an American movie the lead would have been brawny action-hero type or perhaps even a pretty girl. The violence would have been more spectacular and the colors brighter. I would have been entertained but most likely it would have destroyed everything the filmmaker was trying to achieve. The other movie I saw was "Time Machine" and really it was just a muddle. The action didn't do anything for me and I was wonder when Samantha Mumba was going to stop teasing us and either get naked or just cover up. I couldn't concentrate to watch the other movies so I'll reserve judgment.
If you want to cure somebody of hero worship I have just the pictures for you. Scary...
It's ironic that I'd see a headline about monkeys attacking children right after watching "28 Days Later".
I was trying to think of blogs to nominate for the Bloggies, when I realized that I don't read blogs anymore. Too time consuming.

Kuma Range

Today was the first time I have ever attempted to qualify on paper targets and I pray it was the last. I like pop-up targets and detest paper targets. I had a very bad day at the range. I won't go into it as my bedtime is fast approaching but I'll give you the stats. I needed to shoot 26 of 40. I hit 15 of 40 by my own very generous count. I am done now, my butt hurts from sitting down.

New Horizons Day

Today was "New Horizon's day" at Camp Casey, which means that I dozed through several hours of classes and sat puzzled trying to ascertain what exactly I was supposed to learn from the Army training video "Every Drive Counts". I think I was supposed to learn driving safety, which is great since I can't drive. The video did have good moments, like when the perky, but tough airborne female soldier from Brooklyn walked onto the screen (in slow motion!) in a pink dress. The video's producers obviously knew what they were doing. A girl in a pink dress may not seem like a big deal, but when you are in an all male battalion, in a place that can have 50 women out of 1,200 soldiers on a base, a pretty girl in a pink dress is a big deal.
I think I am going to the qualifying range tomorrow, so tune in tomorrow for stories about how I shoot big guns.
By the way, Britney isn't married anymore.

R.I.P. Day 1

I took my umpteenth APFT this morning as part of R.I.P. My raw scores weren't great but my performance on the 2 mi. Run is improving and I am learning to pace myself better. I actually finished strong which is a rarity for me. Typically I sprint to start and nearly crawl in to finish. I am a hare.
Later that morning, all the new soldiers received briefings from the battalion commander and command sergeant major. I fought sleep the entirety of LTC Gubler's briefing. For some reason, CSM Thompson's briefing kept me wide awake the entire time. I think it may have been fear, but that is only a conjecture. The Command Sergeant Major is an interesting man. He desires to teach school after leaving the Army. He wants to teach history, ROTC, and Physical Education. He said commenting on his prospective teaching career, "The children of America will suffer!" I have little doubt of that. He seems to be an all right guy once you get to know him.
R.I.P. seems like it could actually be very cool. We go to the DMZ Friday I think.

Rock Indoctrination Program

I start R.I.P tomorrow. Wish me luck but I can assure you I won't need it. R.I.P., the Rock Indoctrination Program if the title didn't clue you in, is essentially a summarized basic training program. I think it was designed to insure that all soldiers processing into 1-503rd, a.k.a the Rock (hence the "Rock" in R.IP.) have all the basic competencies a soldier should have. In practice nobody fails so I am not sure if that is possible.
It's nearing 2100 hrs in South Korea so my bedtime is near but here are two quick items to keep you busy while I sleep. Britney got married!
I recently got paid a small sum of money with which I am going to pay some bills and start saving some, but I want you to tell me, what should I do with my enlistment bonus? I think I have around $1,000 to spend. (Which I probably won't have tomorrow since someone will read my website come to my room and jack me for it since I have stuffed the entire sum under my mattress.)

P.S. I am moving to the ZULU time zone permanently because I am going to move around a lot and it was easier to find than the South Korean time zone. :) For those who don't know, ZULU time zone is the base from which all time zones are offset. Time zones are denoted like this: GMT+ 09:00 hrs. (South Korean Time). Central Standard time is GMT- 06:00 hrs, 15 hrs behind Korean time. So there ya go.