I Must Be Popular

Well it’s been a while but here I am. People kept asking me when I was going to update again but I’ve been so busy with a number of things. I had to go out of state for a bit, I went to a couple of air-shows and took some pictures and videos, and on top of that I hosted an online international event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gundam (which had participants from at least eighteen countries); among other things.

Not a whole lot has happened with my work though. I hate to say it but I got so busy throwing the anniversary event because I was doing almost all of the work myself that I didn’t have time to keep up with my school. While I know it was probably a stupid thing to do it was the 30th anniversary and that only happens once. I refused to let it go by without doing something since I knew no one else would. Had it been anything other than Gundam I wouldn’t have cared but its creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino, is actually the reason I want to be a writer.

At any rate that’s all done now so all of my attention is back on work and will be from now on. I went to the college the other day to re-register for my classes because the semester ended and it was an odd experience. The paperwork was the same as always and that was followed by the teacher giving the details of the system which I already knew from before. In fact I should only need half of the credits that I did before to get a diploma now but I have to check the specifics to make sure.

The oddness didn’t start until near the end of the system explanation. The other person who was there registering for the same thing I was looked at the sections in their course and saw Etymology. She asked the teacher what this word was and what it meant, the teacher replied calling it ‘itemology’ saying it was the meaning of words. Of course I couldn’t just sit there and not say anything so I said that Etymology was the history of words. They didn’t exactly have faith in that but they took my word for it (oh look, a pun!).

After this was done everyone started talking about random things since the day was technically over and I don’t really know how but I ended up the conversation as well. The teacher asked me what it was exactly that I had been creating and managing. So I told her about the event I created, the anniversary, and that Yoshiyuki Tomino was the reason I wanted to be a writer. She asked me if it was something she could get her son interested in and I said I wasn’t sure, it all depends. In order to generalize it I just said it’s more or less about ‘giant robots’ which isn’t exactly true but I didn’t feel like getting into technical explanations about it.

I suppose since Gundam is a classic show (it was created in 1979) we ended up talking about other classic shows; which apparently only the teacher and I even knew about. I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, M*A*S*H, those kinds of shows. I said “You know how crazy it gets in M*A*S*H? That’s not even half as crazy as it actually is.” She asked “You mean back then?” to which I replied amusedly “No even now it’s like that.” Then I told her this was part of the reason I wanted to be a pilot because being in the military would be good experience for writing. Then she asked me “What do you want to fly?” I thought about it for a mere second and said in slight jest “Well, if I had my choice, an F6F” then I continued “but then it’d have to be the 40’s, so I’m a little late for that.” She said she didn’t even know that was so I went on to say that I’d want to be an F-35 pilot because it’s going to become our standardized fighter. She asked me “Which ones that?” so I replied “F-35, Lightning II” and she asked if I’d be afraid but all I could say was no.

After the other teacher came back in we went back to old shows as she asked him if he had ever seen or heard of any of the shows we had been talking about. The only one he recognized was M*A*S*H saying it was because his father watched it. There was a teenage kid there who didn’t have any clue what we were talking about so he brought up the movie Titanic and had severe disbelief over the fact that I’ve never seen it. One of the things he said was something like ‘it was their fate’ referring to the sinking of the ship; he soon said it was because the crew of the ship said that not even god could sink it.

A little bit more into the conversation (of which I wasn’t saying anything at this point) he brought up ‘the space shuttle’. He didn’t give any ship names and he vaguely referenced the event in which the OV-102 Columbia burnt up on it’s re-entry into the atmosphere. I really don’t know what brought any of this on but he said that his grandfather had told him the reason they couldn’t come back to Earth was because ‘they didn’t see heaven up there.’ It was like one of those train wrecks that you can see coming a mile away but you think ‘there’s no way this is going to happen…’ and then it does. I really wanted to put my hands over my face and shake my head but I kept being polite. I could tell that even the teacher thought this was a little silly and started to more quickly get her things together to go to her meeting.

Once she had gone the conversation was pretty much over and so I went to check on how many more credits I needed. The other teacher who was there at the time looked around a little asking me what my name was and said that my file wasn’t there. Further saying my teacher who had just left currently had the file. I said that I would just E-Mail her and ask her about it later, thanked him, and went to go sit outside until my father was back from doing whatever he was doing.

As I was sitting outside I thought about how uncomfortable the stone bench was and how I was glad to at least be out of the building away from strange conversations. Not ten minutes go by and the same kid walks out and sits on the bench on the opposite side of the entrance. He asked if I was doing the same program as him and I said I was; then he asked me if I really wanted to be a writer and of course I said yes. He then said that he had written a story once based off of a dream he had but that he made up more to it. I told him that’s how writing works; you find something that you like or think would be good and expand upon it. I also told him that the hardest part about writing is just getting it on paper. He asked me what I wanted to write about and I replied saying I most likely wanted to do sci-fi to which he said “You mean real stories?” I said “No, sci-fi, like Star Trek.” and he replied “Oh so like kind of real but not.” so I said “Yeah.”

Apparently he had been on his break and it was then over so he went back inside to work more. I again felt relieved that I was again alone but it was again short lived. An older man soon came out of the building and started talking to me saying he hated the English classes and that he had written a paper uncaring of errors and told the program to auto correct everything so he could come outside for a smoke break. I wasn’t sure what to say so in order to avoid being rude I said I always liked writing but hated science. He told me he loved science, especially when they dissected frogs. I told him I passed on that, it wasn’t for me. We talked a little more and I said I just wanted to do whatever I had to so I could get my credits and all of my requirements to be a pilot. He asked what I needed and I said I needed a college level to degree to which he replied “Oh that’s right because you need to be an officer to be a pilot” I further explained that the minimum requirement to even enlist in the Marines was now fifteen college credits at which he gave me a look of shock and said “To enlist?” I replied nodding “Yes to enlist.”

The reason he was so surprised by the minimum requirements was that he too was once in the military; I assume Marines. He then began to speak of his career and that he should’ve tried to become an officer. One thing he said was that one time when he was being transferred that he had the choice of either Hawaii or Germany. Then he said “I liked Hawaii but if I had went there then I’d be walking around like this all day.” As he said that he raised his arm and made the salute gesture. Basically he was saying there were lots of officers there and that’d he’d be saluting all day. So he chose Germany, only to later find out that at the medical unit where he would be going they’d mostly be officers too. However he said he was lucky because the day he was supposed to get on the train to go to Germany they told him that he was going to Italy instead and he said he felt relieved.

He continued with other stories. One of them was about how he had mistaken the general who was his base commander to be an Italian officer and thus didn’t salute him which he subsequently got chewed out for. Another was about how terrible their filing and paperwork system was and that he had spent a year completely re-organizing all of their medical records. He even said that one of the files he found sitting on a shelf was of a guy who was a Colonel that had been dead for two years and soon found out that his widow had been filling his prescriptions this entire time. She caused a huge fuss over being denied the medication that was meant for her very dead husband and insisted that she be given his original medical records so she could continue to get more somewhere else but he refused and went through every paper stamping ‘deceased’.

My father had come back during this story and they both started talking about how hard it was to get a job once you retire from the military. He said he had tried to get a job in a few hospitals since he had all of the qualifications but was denied because he hadn’t then yet used a computer because they did all of their paperwork and records by hand. After a little more of them talking we finally left and the day was over.

----

On a slightly related note I took a number of pictures and some videos from the “Wings over Wayne” air-show at Seymour Johnson AFB and some from the MCAS Cherry Point air-show. I haven’t had time to go through both of them yet but I’ve sorted and uploaded everything that I took from the first show at Seymour Johnson AFB. I’ll add links to the Cherry Point air-show once I get them up.

Videos of the Seymour Johnson AFB 2009 air-show can be seen here (click the HD button to watch them in the best quality!): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=71FD2EBB871C3F32

Pictures from the Seymour Johnson AFB 2009 air-show can be seen here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v259/casval/Camera/Airshows/Seymour%20Johnson%20AFB%202009/

You can also download the complete collection of pictures and videos from Seymour Johnson AFB 2009 here.
Pictures Pack: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CTF33U79
Video Pack 1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1CBHQW1B
Video Pack 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NQ3YFECJ
Video Pack 3: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5ITRQNYC
Video Pack 4: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GDJJ4R27

The Edge of Patience

I went back to the college today to set up my online classes and again I feel as if I should’ve just stayed home. It’s good that it’s set up and working now. Although the manner in which things occurred and as short and simple as everything was I feel like this is something to be done over the phone rather than requiring you to physically be there.

I was told yesterday to come to the college at one o’clock. I did so and again my teacher was not anywhere in sight. I thought to myself “Shouldn’t they have been here on time? They’re the one who scheduled the appointment!” and as usual I wasn’t in any hurry so I didn’t mind waiting. The issue here being I feel it’s a little improper to be late for appointments that you create.

Soon enough she came and she gave me paperwork to fill out. This is all well and fine however the paperwork she gave me was identical to the paperwork I filled out at the orientation. I can’t imagine why I’d need to fill out the same exact things twice but this makes me wonder if they’ve somehow lost my paperwork. I should have asked about it but at that point it probably would’ve made this whole thing a slightly larger mess and I thought I’d just go with it to make things progress faster.

As I was filling the papers out her superior came over and asked me when I was going to come in and work. I told her my plan was to get the online classes working and finish them as soon as possible. She asked “So ‘You and the Law’ is on the backburner then?” and I promptly replied “Yes”. She then gave me a look and shook her head while walking away saying “Oook” with a tone that felt as if she was saying ‘I think you’re making a mistake but it’s your life’. I appreciate that they say it’s a fast credit and easy to do but I know exactly how I want to do things so I felt like I was being questioned or even judged.

Because of the previously mentioned mess there were a few things I wasn’t sure how to fill out. For example I wasn’t certain how to fill out my last attendance dates to which my teacher said “Just leave it blank. I don’t have any problem with leaving things blank. Let the people in the office worry about it.” Now I don’t like to quickly form opinions about people but so far this entire procedure has seemed very unprofessional. Again I didn’t give it any thought and went on with it. The sooner I was out of here the sooner I could work at home.

While I was filling out the papers she set up my account and after I finished she showed me the website to go to. She suggested I write it down but I didn’t feel it warranted since the address was simple and I spend a lot of my time online. The page then loaded blank with a notice that in order to access the content you need a specific ActiveX control running. My teacher then began to explain in a very crude manner that this was something you might get and she didn’t remember what it was called and as soon as she said that I told her “It’s ActiveX. You could just tell your browser to allow it from this site and avoid future problems.” I’m no stranger to the internet or browser functions.

She quickly moved on and brought up the program interface and asked me which electives I wanted to take. She showed me which of the classes listed were electives and none of them sound particularly appealing so I just chose the first one I thought of. Then she had me log in on the computer in front of me and told me that the first class she had given me was health because it was a required class. Next she told me to try to access a part of the health class that was about halfway through the course. It worked and she told me to wait saying that I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. After somewhat frantically looking through her admin console she found the correct setting to disallow me from access content out of order.

At this point she began to tell me how the classes actually work. Each segment listed on the screen has four parts. The first part is a test which if you score 80% or above you supposedly don’t have to do that segment of the class. If you don’t pass it then you need to read the chapter which is the second part. The third part is the ‘review test’ which doesn’t count for anything and is meant to prepare you for the actual test which is the fourth part. All of this concludes one chapter of study in a class. This was simple enough and I understood this easily.

Following this she told me that after every few chapters there is a ‘review test’ you are required to take. These tests cover all of the chapters immediately previous to it. I asked her whether these were just more practice tests (since she called the others ‘review tests’) or if they would actually count for something to which she quickly and laughingly replied “Boy you are dense aren’t you?” It was then that I was greatly beginning to lose my patience with her, this program, and the entire college. I’ve not heard very many good things about this college and the only reason I’ve gone to it is because there aren’t a lot of nearby choices. I wanted to stand right up and in my loudest voice possible give a response to that question she’d not soon forget. I wanted to see her try to make some snide comments about what I had to say but luckily for her I’m a patient man. Regardless I’ll not stand for such blatant disregard and unprofessionalism again. I’m willing to give second chances but not a third.

I’m not at all pleased with anything this college has to offer so far. I’ve not yet even started and already I doubt anything can happen that would change my mind about it. I was thinking about waiting until I finished so that when I tried to join the USMC I’d go straight to officer but if things keep up in this manner I’m seriously going to consider enlisting when I have the minimum fifteen credits just to get the hell away from here and find a much more professional learning environment.

I Should've Kept Playing Ace Combat...

      I guess I haven’t updated in a while. Well nothing has happened worth writing about. That’s not to say that things of little or no consequence have been happening; nothing has happened at all. Nevertheless I will not forget about this blog, there will always be new posts. I’m not the kind to give up on things.

      As you can already guess, something new happened. I once again returned to the college today hoping to set up my online classes. Before I left I was playing Ace Combat 6 because I figured I’d be doing a lot of work once I was at the college and so I thought I would get in as much relaxing game play as possible.  I’d prefer to do my classes online so that I can do it wherever and whenever I please while wasting very little time. Not to mention my plan is to blaze through it all as fast as I can. Much to my dismay this was not set up today.

      Once I arrived I soon found out that my teacher was not around. I asked the only person I could find in the office about this and they said she was in a meeting of some kind. I wasn’t in any hurry and I asked when my teacher would return, to which they said ‘maybe an hour’ and as usual I didn’t mind waiting. They asked me what I was there for and once I answered they brought me to one of the rooms where students were working and told me that a different teacher could help me.

      When I walked into the room this other teacher was hanging something on a board. After he was finished he asked me what I needed and I told him I was there to set up my online classes. We moved over to a computer and he looked at the screen and asked if it looked like ‘a+’ (which is the name of an application used for one of their online programs). I said I wasn’t sure and that I didn’t even know how any of this works or what I needed. He then said something along the lines of “Well… I don’t either” followed by “People like to think I know things that I don’t” at which point I said “I figured I’d probably just have to wait.”

      He told me I could use the computer until my teacher was back and I said “I don’t know what I’d use it for.” He then asked for my name and set up an account for me on an application called ‘plato’ for me to work on as I waited. He told me that he gave me two English sections to work on and said “I don’t know if this is what you’ll be using but it probably is so it won’t be entirely in vain.” I said “ok” and began working.

      As soon as I started I was underwhelmed. The questions, setup, and difficulty of the work before me was ridiculously simple. The very first segment was identifying pronouns. All of the segments were as effortless as distinguishing a finely cut diamond from ordinary river stones. At this point I assumed this computer program was for ABE (Adult Basic Education) because it certainly seemed too easy for me. Despite this I felt the need to finish as much as possible including all of the tutorials simply to kill time.

      When my teacher finally returned I had finished almost the whole first course I was given. I would’ve finished everything to be sure but the program was set in a way that it requires you to be on certain screens for a preset amount of time before advancing. I later found out, not much at all to my surprise, it didn’t count for anything. For once I didn’t mind that I had done work that was meaningless. It was incredibly easy and I’m the kind of person that can get caught up in things and not realize how much time has passed.

      Now that my teacher was here I expected things would move quickly; they didn’t exactly. She was already helping another student with something and told me to wait in the front of the room and as soon as she was finished she would get to me. Roughly ten minutes later she was back and started telling me what credits I would need. She had another ‘revised’ version of my transcript which actually gave me more of the credits I rightfully earned but it still wasn’t acceptable. From my understanding this wouldn’t even be a problem save for the fact that my old teacher apparently doesn’t like to return calls.

      What was wrong this time? My name was displayed correctly. It granted me more but not quite nearly all of my credits. It even had numerical values as far as I could see and they were still wrong and far lower than what I had actually received. So what could have possibly made this one unacceptable? For some reason my old teacher decided to change the dates on the transcript. This might not have been an issue (though I have to wonder quite simply why they felt the change was needed) if it wasn’t for the fact that the dates that were listed as my final high school years were in fact dates which I was still attending middle school.

…

      Moving on she told me that for the moment they’re going to assume they will be getting a fixed transcript so that I won’t have to redo the credits that were listed. “Good luck with that”, I thought. Then she showed me the core credits I needed and how many electives I would need. For the moment, I need a total of fifteen credits. She also told me I could challenge only two classes. A challenge is more or less where you take the final test and if you pass you automatically get that credit. Yet I wonder why I can only do that for two classes? The entire program from what I’ve seen is free so it can’t be a money issue. 

      She then passed me off to her superior who told me pretty much the same things. Her superior then started to write a list of classes I could challenge. This entire process took quite a while because students kept coming up and asking questions and for some reason they would always both respond. Around half way through the list she erased two of the classes and said something like “You’ll never be able to pass those anyway.” I couldn’t help but think to myself “Excuse me? Isn’t that for me to decide?” but I chose not to say anything since I can only do two total. She then asked me which two classes I wanted to challenge and I was a little astonished that they expected me to decide this right there so I simply said “I don’t know yet.”

      Next she handed me a book titled “You and the Law” saying that it was an easy elective credit since it only took a couple days to complete. She told me how to go through the book; read one chapter, do the test at the end of the chapter (but not in the book), and so on. Subsequently she went to pull out the photocopied test only to find they didn’t have any more copies. So she took the master copy and we walked down the hall to the photocopier. I’m not sure what she was doing since the room was far too small for more than one person to be in but she seemed to be having difficulty with the machine. My teacher soon walked in and attempted to create the copies the way that they wanted them. The two of them were in disagreement over how to accomplish this and then I heard my teacher say “Don’t tell me how to use this machine. I know how to use this machine.” I’m guessing she said it with a slight bit of sarcasm because they weren’t actually arguing over it but I wasn’t really paying attention.

      After the photocopier pandemonium was over my teachers superior gave me one of the copies of the test as well as a folder and told me that the book can’t leave the room. This meant that I couldn’t take it home and complete it. I would ascertain that this was a measure to keep people from cheating however one could easily turn the pages back, search for the answers in the previous chapter, and no one would have any idea. Finally she told me that whenever I was going to leave I was to place this folder into a green crate on a desk by the wall.

      My teacher then said to me that before I could take the online classes I would need to come back tomorrow and take an instructional course to learn how to do it. I thought that’s what I was there to achieve today but evidently not. Since I was only really interested in getting the online work out of the way as fast as I could I surmised that I wouldn’t get anything finished today and I should just come back tomorrow.

It always seems like I can never get anything accomplished especially when it’s not in my power to accomplish it.

Opportunity Abound

      There are still so many things that I don’t know about the military in general. There is so much to learn and so many different ways to go about things. I decided I would start gathering a lot of questions about the USMC, pilot eligibility, and college oriented programs a while ago. Since I felt I had acquired enough questions and I knew more weren’t coming until I’m much farther down my path I decided to call my recruiter today and talk to him about some of them.

      When I called I was a little less than eager. For me a phone call isn’t as direct as simply talking to a person in front of you and I prefer to be direct whenever possible. Consequently in this instance I felt a little uneasy. This was somewhat amplified by the fact that I could barely hear him and the fact that he soon told me he was busy with someone else. He said he’d call back when they were finished. That was understandable so I began waiting near the phone expecting it to be no more than forty minutes to an hour before he called back.

      Sometime around three hours later he called me back (maybe even two and a half hours). I could barely hear him still. I’d assume the receiver on his phone was old or failing because it sounded as if he was holding the phone a good five feet away from himself. He remembered who I was which made things easier and I began to ask some of my questions. I don’t recall in what exact order I asked my questions and I could barely hear him. As a result I could have easily misunderstood something he said and gotten some information wrong so please feel free to correct me if you notice any errors.

      One of the first questions I asked was about LASER eye surgery. As far as I understand it in order to be a pilot you need to have 20/20 eyesight which many people don’t have (I used to have better than that, but it’s a long story).  I was curious about it because I thought I’d heard somewhere before that if you had certain conditions or if your eyesight was poor enough you wouldn’t be able to receive LASER surgery treatment. My recruiter told me he had never heard of such a case before and everyone should be able to receive the proper treatment. I was very relieved when I heard this answer.

      The next thing I asked about was the age limitations for becoming a pilot. He didn’t know and had to search for the answer but eventually found it. He told me that the age requirement for becoming a pilot is twenty-one years old. He then said that the age limit is twenty-seven and a half. I really don’t know how long it’s going to take me to finish everything I need but I certainly hope I do it before I’m too old to begin training. I’m going to blast through everything as fast and efficiently as I can.

      I recalled when I had first visited him and he told me that it would be good to have enlisted experience before becoming an officer. I was never really quite sure what he meant by that and asked him if he could elaborate upon it. He just told me that it would give me an understanding of what the demands upon enlisted soldiers are and what they have to work with and go through. Personally I’d prefer to have this kind of experience but I’m still not sure how I’m going to approach attempting to join.

      After this I wanted to know a little bit more about becoming an officer and the different ways to do so. The first thing he mentioned to me was the BOOST (Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training) program which as far as I understand is a preparatory program for enlisted personnel who desire to go to college but are educationally deprived or not yet at college level. I’m not sure why he mentioned this program to me considering it is only available to enlisted personnel while currently you need fifteen college credits to even enlist in the USMC. I guess that’s something I couldn’t hear and missed but I don’t think I’ll have to worry about it very much because I doubt I’ll have need of this program.

      I soon asked him about programs that actually pay for your college education and he told me about the PLC (Platoon Leaders Course). From what I’ve gathered about this program it is open to most college students regardless of if you’ve ever served in the military. You attend summer training to help prepare you for becoming a Marine and the length is dependant on your year in college. I believe that most colleges even give you credit for completing this program. You can also receive tuition assistance however until you do accept the assistance you are not required to serve in the USMC. Once you graduate you then have the chance to serve as a second lieutenant provided you meet the requirements.

      I then decided to ask what it would be like if I were to enlist immediately when I attained the minimum fifteen credits required but continued with college all the same. The recruiter then told me about another way to become a commissioned officer called MECEP (Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program). As I’ve understood this one you can apply at any enlisted rank but must be between the ages of twenty and twenty-six. You also have to score well enough on certain tests to qualify and once qualified you need to submit a package of all relevant records and documents to be accepted. You also have to submit an essay which even undergoes handwriting analysis. However if you are accepted your college classes will be fully paid for and you will go to school full time while still receiving active duty pay.

      After everything else one of the only things left that I wanted to know was about the contract that you sign when you join. My questions were specifically about your MOS (Military Occupation Specialty). For those who don’t know your MOS is basically your job title and in the military they are broken down into fields each with their own numbers and every job under that specific field also has its own numbers. If you want to learn more you can go here.

      I’ve heard many things from many people; some of it contradictory. Some have told me that you don’t get to choose your MOS while others have said that they would never sign their contract if their MOS wasn’t in it. I have additionally heard that it can be very hard to change your MOS (such as working your way up from enlisted to officer so you can become a pilot). When I asked my recruiter about this he told me that it usually isn’t hard to change your MOS. He further explained to me that you do get to select which field you want to work in but how you perform on certain tests determines which specific job in that field you get assigned to. He continued by saying that he wasn’t sure on the exact process for officers but that the Officer Selection Office knew everything I could want to know about this sort of thing since I wanted to be a pilot and thus would be required to be an officer. My father also told me that the top 10% of each class in TBS (The Basic School) gets to choose their MOS themselves but I’m not sure how true this is as I have not personally confirmed it.

      The final question I was going to ask him I nearly forgot to do so. Once a few years ago I knew a guy who was in the Army and told me that once you sign the contract any original work you create would be the property of the Army. For example if you were to write a book while in the Army they would own it. I wanted to know how true this was or if there was any basis to it at all. He remarked that he had never heard anything about that and he did not recall anything similar to that being in the contract but that he would have to re-read it to be sure. Another answer that gave me some relief considering I do also want to be a writer.

      Finally as I no longer had anymore questions to ask he told me to call him back as soon as I had the minimum fifteen credits required and then he would give me the number to the Officer Selection Office who would be able to better answer a number of my questions. I kind of wish I could ask them about these sorts of things right now however patience isn’t an issue for me. I really don’t know if I want to enlist as soon as possible and then work towards officer and pilot or just go straight for officer and pilot from the start but I have plenty of time to decide. For now all I need to do is get to work.

There are other options and programs to become an officer in the USMC though the two mentioned here (PLC and MECEP) are the most likely ones for me. To see other programs and learn more visit these links:

http://www.marineofficer.com/page/Earning-a-Commission-O.jsp

http://www.military.com/MilitaryCareers/Content/0,14556,MPDC_Options_Commissioning_Marine,00.html

To learn more about PLC (Platoon Leaders Course) visit these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon_Leaders_Class

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/marinetrng/a/marineplc.htm

To learn more about MECEP (Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program) visit these links:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marinetrng/a/mcecp.htm

http://nrotc.ou.edu/mecep.html

Wonders Never Cease

      Undoubtedly my last transcript was inadequate. My old teacher requested that I provide her with the relevant records so that she could give me all of my credits. She wants me to provide her with the records that it was no less than her job and legal obligation to be keeping up to now since she chose not to send anything to the board of education (who I also feel has failed in their job by not being on top of things like this). The few records I do have were never meant to be the basis for a transcript; that’s not the student’s job. Despite this she has been given what there was to be found on my end.

      As a result, my old teacher sent over a ‘fixed’ copy of my transcript. About the only differences between this and the last one that I noticed was the fact that my name was correct and it looked like she had given me one additional credit. The changes were not satisfactory but it was suggested to me that it be taken to the college anyway so that I could obtain whatever precious few credits there were. That way I could start working and when I could get her to rightfully give me more I would then bring that to the college as well. This way there wouldn’t be too much wasted time.

      Things always get better. Even though the name was now acceptable the transcript still was not. You see a proper transcript is required to have numerical grade values. You might wonder why but this is to help with conversion between the different systems that schools use and more so to keep an accurate record on file. I’m sure you have guessed by now that there were absolutely no numerical values on the paper at all. It was nothing more than the letter “C” across the very few lines on the page. At this juncture the college wanted to see her teaching certificate granted to her by local government and I can’t blame them in the least. You might have also guessed by now that she doesn’t have that either. So now we have to request a copy from the board of education.

      I wasn’t pleased before we went to the college today and I was definitely less pleased by the time we left. All the same by now I was getting hungry so after a few other stops I went to one of the local Taco Bell establishments. As soon as I walked in I could tell something was different and before I could even speak a word the two cashiers were already bickering in jest. When I said what I wanted the man on the right started to input my order and the woman on the left began to reach over to correct the order which was promptly followed by a short lived burst of hand slapping between the two of them reaching for the same computer. The woman on the left said “I’m sorry.” To which I said “I don’t mind.” And then the man on the right said sarcastically “See he doesn’t care.”

      Many snarky comments were flung between the two the entire time which somehow evolved into a tackling match in front of the registers. I could already tell the rest of the employees there weren’t really amused by their antics but I honestly thought it was fun to watch. As the woman went in the back to get my order the man said “Women are crazy, you know what I mean?” I’ve met my share of insane women so I nodded in agreement. After I had my order the woman again apologized by saying “I’m sorry customer.” And I again told her I didn’t mind. As I picked up my order the man said something along the lines of “Women are crazy man, run away!” as I turned for the door he yelled “Run dawg run!”

      I can only imagine for how long they carried on after I left yet I’m glad I stopped there. Because of their shenanigans I wasn’t feeling so bad about all of my transcript issues anymore. Call it perfect timing, coincidence, or what have you but I needed it. Nevertheless I haven’t forgotten and I’m not letting go until I’m satisfied with whatever may come.

Familiarizing Setbacks

      Today I returned to the college for the second and final part of orientation. I don’t feel like I wasted so much time today though so that’s always good. All the same people showed up that were there before and I thought it was kind of funny that everyone (including myself) sat in the same exact seats despite the freedom to sit anywhere.

      As soon as the teacher arrived she began handing out strangely assembled slips of paper (as seen above). I could tell from the start that these were in fact the scores from the test we had taken just two days prior. The scores on the slips were actually approximations of what level of education you fell into for each segment. I expected I’d get average scores for the English parts and I feared the worst when it came to the mathematics. It turns out I did quite well, as you can see in the image at the top of this post. In fact my results were in the highest tier available.

      The teacher then began explaining the differences between the available programs which were ABE (Adult Basic Education), GED (General Educational Development), and AHS (Adult High School). In short ABE is for those not yet up to high school standards while GED and AHS are for those who currently are. There was a lot of explanation about what scores fit into what area; the higher your score the higher the tier you fell into. Scores of 8.9 and below fell into one of the four tiers for ABE while scores of 9.0 and above fell into one of the two tiers for GED or AHS.

      For the high school level programs scores of 9.0 to 10.0 were eligible for GED/AHS low and scores of 11.0 to 12.0 were eligible for GED/AHS high. Neither GED nor AHS is above the other as far as I understand it. The teacher never really elaborated upon the differences between to the two. Despite this, I know that AHS will serve you far better than a GED would. My choice was clear.

      I could elaborate on comparisons between GED and AHS even more but I don’t feel that’s needed and I don’t think anyone really wants to read it. Since I chose AHS my only requirement at this point is a total of twenty credits. That’s all I need and I will be finished and ready to start working for my fifteen college credits required to enlist into the USMC. It sounded simple at first but what would happen later took away that comfort.

      All that remained before the orientation would be over was a short tour around the college along with clarification of which buildings housed which facilities. After this I met privately with the teacher in her office to discuss an issue with one of my transcripts. You see the head of the private school which I once attended (and is now closed) never kept any records. Let me be a little more specific, she never kept any records of grades, attendance, or even student names.

      You did read that correctly. There were no records of any kind to be had. Due to this when she was creating my transcript she simply made everything up. When I left her school I was just a couple months from finishing high school entirely. However according to the transcript she had given me I barely even began. I attended for well over two years while the document (if you can call it that) claimed I had only been there for one year.

      It always seems to find a way to get even better. This lackluster ‘record’ in fact did list most of the classes I had taken for my second year there but as if it were some cruel joke of irony it didn’t assign any credit for any of them. The four or five classes that weren’t missing and she decided to give me credit for were all given the grade of C in what felt to be open ridicule of the fact that I had actually received a good amount of A’s. If that wasn’t enough, the crowning accomplishment atop this scandalous script was the fact that she didn’t even know how to spell my name which you might think isn’t so bad were it not for the grandiose absurdity of claiming that my name was none other than the word “Thorough”.

…

      Clearly this document was unacceptable. Even if it were I would never agree to submit the vast majority of my rightfully earned credits to the great void never to be seen again. I knew things wouldn’t be simple but this is getting worse by the day. Right now it feels like someone out there is trying to tear away my will to carry on with my quest to become a pilot. Unfortunately for them they don’t seem to be aware that my will is about the only thing I have left in my life at this point nor do they seem to realize that it’s impossible to stop a man determined to reach out and meet his future.

I’ll be damned if this ends here.

Making Sense is Overrated

      So I went to the orientation at the college today and it was an incredible waste of time. I’ll try to put into words what happened today…

      The orientation was supposed to start at 9:00 AM however the teacher wasn’t there until a few minutes after. What’s worse is that twenty-three people signed up for it and only ten showed up. What’s worse still is the fact that four of the ten that showed up were late. I’m not here to judge other people but that’s kind of saddening when you think about it.

      Though there wasn’t really a problem with the teacher showing up just a few minutes late; that sort of thing I don’t mind. Once the teacher decided to start we had to fill out a bunch of forms and we were only allowed to fill them out a certain way and only where the teacher specified. Again, I didn’t mind this sort of thing. This was just the college gathering our information and so on.

      After that we were given a test with four segments and twenty-five questions each with breaks in-between most parts of the tests. I don’t really want to make it sound like the other people that were there were a little slow or anything but for the most part I finished the test segments before anyone else was done which gave me time to draw a little bit since I had nothing else to do. That’s not to say I did flawlessly on the test. The entire thing was simple however when the mathematics section started I soon realized I had forgotten most of the mathematical formulas I had previously learned over the years due to complete and absolute disuse.

      Mathematics is something I’ll have to work on, not because I’m weak with it or anything but because I simply don’t remember a lot of the formulas. However re-learning them is an easy enough thing to accomplish so it won’t really be too much of an issue. I just felt kind of silly since I know I’ve done much more complicated work before. If nothing else I suppose it was a good thing to notice that slight gap in my memory. I also thought it was funny that they gave us calculators for the word problems section.

      This all sounds fine and well, nothing unexpected so far. However once we were on the last part of the tests the teacher said to not worry if we did poorly on any part of it. I thought I understood what she was saying up to that point, these aren’t actual classes or real work we’re doing here… but I could never guessed what was about to happen next. As the teacher clarified further I realized why she had said this, apparently we have to do the same exact tests all over again.

      Yes, we have to do the very same tests again. “Why?” you might be wondering. Well the teacher actually explained that to us. She said that the people who are actually in charge of the program and place us into the appropriate classes don’t like the way that the orientation does the testing and thus makes you do them all over again. At this point I was wondering why we didn’t just take the tests with them to begin with and avoid the gigantic waste of time that we were currently partaking in.

      It gets even better. In order to receive credit for the tests we took today we have to return on Wednesday. Yes, in order to get credit for tests that grant no credit at all and must be retaken we have to come back on a completely different day than the day they were actually taken. I don’t even know what to say about it at this point. Do they think we had our twins or some sort of duplicates come in and take the tests for us? And why does credit even matter if we have to retake them all over again? 

      I’m not really thrilled about all that time I wasted there. Though I suppose it’s not a complete loss since I did have enough time to draw a little bit during it all. I’m not eager to go back Wednesday and I really don’t know what to expect. I don’t even want to think about it. Superfluous is a good word to describe the orientation so far.