A Long Way From Anything

5 days until I ship. I'm packing my seabag and memorizing trivia (the Instructors love to play games). And now the water pump in my Jeep had gone kaput. *sigh* Hopefully things will start to turn around soon.

Today I was ready a list of stories from an Englishman, cleverly entitled Things my girlfriend and I have argued about and the differences in language struck me. They also reminded me of a funny story. A bit of background first: I hate rap music. I don't like it at all. Never have, probably never will. Please believe me when I say this causes plenty of problems for me. My generation is the Eminem, Gansta rap wannabe, hard-core suburban white kid generation. Trying to interact with these people is extremely trying. Now back to the story.

Back in 1999 I was in Ireland visiting my family. One fine summer day we were out and about touring the Dingle peninsula. A strange fact about Europe crops up here. They love pop music. I mean they can't get enough of it. So there we are, driving along, ooohing and aahing at all the appropriate places when the new Eminem song (his first song - whichever it was) comes on the radio. I gnash my teeth but figure "Well, it's their car, they can listen to whatever they want." Then they proceed to question me about the song. Such as "What's Kool-Aid?" "What's a fifth?" und so wieter. For the next few hours I spent my time decyphering American lyrics for my Irish cousins. I didn't think I'd ever feel clean after that. Ack. It's amazing that people who share the same language, the same generation, and the same bloodline can be so different.

"The coldest winter I've ever experienced is the summer I spent in Ireland." - S

I need to get one of these or, on on a coffee mug. Damn cool.

So I'm starting to get a little worried. You see, a few days ago I was watching TV and a retired 4 star Army General mentioned that he thought in Dec. of 2005 we'd still have 100,000 troops in Iraq. I'm bothered by this because around Dec. 2005 I will have completed all of my training and will be going into Fleet. Joy. The last thing I want to do is go to Iraq. Why can't I get a decent war? Can't the Germans start up something again? I'm looking for a large-scale conflict, preferably several years in length, in a nice temperate zone. Or maybe the Bahamas could try to invade the U.S. I'd be down with that. I just don't want to go the damn desert. My pale-ass Irish skin is not made for that sort of climate!

In other news, the Army is considering calling up the IRR. What is the IRR you ask? Well, it stands for Inactive Ready Reserve. It includes people that recently completed their active duty requirement and people who are part-way through their training. Like me. I have a recurring nightmare of being told at the end of OCS "Sorry Brian, you can't go back to school. We're activating you right now. Finish up your degree later. For now, go report in!" Grrrr...stupid war in Iraq.

I just realized what a weird bird I am. I logged on to Amazon and was greeted with my recommendations: Joyce's Dubliners, a little Plato, a few sci-fi novels, and the Combat Leader's Field Guide. I am a silly git.

For some reason blogger is temporarily not working for me. It has something to do with the browser I normally use (Mozilla Firefox). I haven't forgotten you all, as soon as I figure out what's wrong normal posting will resume.

Oh yeah, how about having that "going away" party on the 29th? Anyone up for it? I'm thinking a few movies, a few beers, maybe dinner. Just time to sit around and relax with my friends. Let me know what you think...

Today I received an early birthday present from S. He was smart. He went on amazon, clicked on my wishlist and got me a few things. I got Murphy's laws of combat, Essential Chest & Shoulders, and Heartbreak Ridge. Overall, very cool. Thanks mate.

Occasionally I post links to porn on this blog. So here's one for you. This girl is five fantisies rolled into one:

http://www.tannermedia.net/tgp/asian/2/index.html

Well, I took my pre-ship PFT today. I did 17 pullups (only 15 counted), 100 situps, and ran 3 miles in 22 minutes, 45 seconds. Obviously, I sucked it up on the run. But then again it was 85 degrees outside (on blacktop too). All together that gives me a 245. Which, while not bad, is five points below what I made last time. We then went and did a horrendus Upper-Body workout. I can't touch my hair now. Holding a phone to my ear is painful. Jeez.

On my third day at OCS I'll take another PFT. The problem with this one is that the 3-mile course is actually 3.1 miles and they give you all of your shots right before. That way your arms are all nice and sore for pullups. Basically, what I need is more padding on my run-time in case I have a bad day. If I take longer than 24 minutes to complete the 3.1, I get chewed out and sent home. Not good. So now I run my ass off.

Other than that, I'm ready to ship. OCS here I come! 15 Days to go!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future. Specifically about the next two years of my life. I'm not a socialist, so I figure two years is good enough. (g) After I complete OCS this summer, I come back and finish up my Senior year of Uni. I'm looking forward to it a lot. I don't know how much I'll care, but I'm looking forward to it. Approximately 8 months after coming back, I'll graduate. On May 11th, 2005, I will have finished my matriculation. A few hours before the ceremony I'll get my commission. So when I walk across the podium and get my degree, I'll be wearing Marine green underneath. On top of this, I get to wear one of those honor ribbons on top of my gown. As soon as the ceremony is over I'm going to rip off that gown, put on my cover, flash those lovely butter-bars, thank a couple of professors and get the hell out of Carrollton. Then I wait around for a few weeks, gradually packing up all of my earthly belongings and then move to Quantico. I'm planning on doing it roadtrip style. I figure I'll drag a few friends along with me. I'll rent a Ryder truck and we'll switch off drivers. Two days of partying to northern Virginia. Then my career starts.

It's strange thinking about leaving school. As far back as I can remember I've always been in school. Now, I'm thinking about my career. It's such a completely different mindset. I'm actually starting to feel like I'm an adult now. Damn that's scary. For once in my life I'll actually have some money. I can't tell you how nice it will be to not be living hand to mouth. Even if I can draw upon two thousand years. Screw Nietzsche!

Kind of a community service announcement: If you want to receive a letter from me while I'm at OCS (and hopefully you'll reply), please send your mailing address to me at (enki.mail at gmail dot com). They don't really allow us phone calls so letters are the next best thing when you're being screamed at for 3 months.

If any of you have ever had problems with women, let me recommend both Shopenhauer's Essays and Aphorisms and Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus. Both excellent works.

"You must live your life as if you have been condemned to die and sun is beginning to rise"

I feel like a rat in a cage. Constantly pacing back and forth, waiting for a scientist to reach in and grab me. I've got three weeks until I ship for OCS. In the meantime, I don't have anything to do (compared to my normal school-year schedule). I think this makes it worse. I just want to get on the plane now and head out. Half of me is a nervous wreck, churning thoughts of OCS (and ten weeks of utter hell) over and over in my mind. The other half is busy singing "I'm leaving, on a jetplane. Don't know when I'll be back again." I feel at ends. Other than PT, I don't know what to do with myself. I don't have the money to do anything fun, but I don't have anything important to get done. argh.

My apologies for not posting this week. I was away in Athens on drill. Overall, it was pretty fun. I got bunked up with three other candidates (in a huge four bedroom house). They ran our asses off every day, waking us up every morning at 4:30 and crashing at 11. This may sound like hell, but it was fun because of the comraderie and the activities. On monday we had a PFT that I sucked at (a 3 mile run in 90 degree weather by definition sucks) and on Tuesday I pulled a hamsting while on a 5 mile boot run. But now onto the fun stuff:

While there I picked up the nickname "The Pope" because I am the only Catholic candidate (very few of us in the South). I also became known as "The GPS" due to one of my Captain's comments. We had just finished doing a Squad (13 Marines in three fireteams) tactics exercise that consisted of manuevering over rough terrain (hills, draws, swamps, etc...) for roughly a mile and then assaulting an enemy position. Along the way several changes in course were required. I was selected to be point-man (a combination of navigator, stalker, hunter, and leader) for one of these patrols. Apparently, I am an awesome point-man because after the exercise, the Captain was talking to all of us (30 or so candidates) and said something alongs these lines: "Alright everyone, if you've got Brian in your squad at OCS, put him on point. The man's like a fuckin' GPS." My ability to navigate over a mile of rough terrain and keep an accurate pace-count along with being spot-on in my azimuths apparently is a good thing. After that I was a much contested commodity. (g)

More to follow...

I wrote this a few nights ago when I was a little bored. I hope you enjoy.

There's a big problem with ethics that has been bothering me a while and I can't seem to find a way around it. You see, ethics is all about predicting the future. David Hume was right when we said that we can't, but Kant was right when he said we have to try. We take stock of what we know today and try to apply it to the future, hoping that somehow we can make things better. That's the way everything in life works. You take your empirical knowledge, combine it with a little reasoning, and predict what's going to happen. We do this every day. Driving to school I try to hypothesize what traffic will be like and therefore which route I should take. When I ask a girl out, I think back to all my other experiences, combine them with what I know about this particular girl, and try to meet her desires. We do this at work. We do this at home. We do this in church. And hell, we do this when making love. Life is all about prediction.

That being said, let us now consider ethics in general. The purpose of ethics (as St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out) is to identify what is wrong and how we can keep from doing that. Well, I've tackled part two, so now it's time for part one. So, what makes an action wrong? It's hard to say really, but for the sake of expediency, can we all agree that an act that causes damage to someone is wrong? I'm speaking in a very general sense here. For example: can we all agree that to sexually molest a child is wrong? That is, it causes incalculable damage to the child and fundamentally fucks them up...I think we can all agree to that. The problem is (assuming cultural relativism to be true - which I disagree with), in New Guinea, homosexual relations between an older man and a young boy are common. They don't mess up the kid either (reminiscent of ancient Rome, no?). The relationship is a necessary one for a New Guinea boy to become a "man". It's honored and treasured. So, maybe it's not the act that is bad, but the harming of another person that immoral (remember, very general here).

So let's review at this point. One, in order to function (as a society, as a world, as any group), we must place emphasis on trying to predict the future. Two, we cannot place abstract normative rules on actions (e.g., "Killing is always morally wrong."). So, what are we left with? We're left with very little in the way of a normative ethic. Therefore, I believe that we must follow instead a code of virtue ethics (similar in function to those of Aristotle). Something along the lines of "Be courageous, but not foolhardy or cowardly.", "Be Fair, but not overly lenient or overly cruel.", and so forth. We cannot hope to abide by some set of abstract standards, it simply does not fit the prediction criteria or the damage criteria. We have to instead focus on a set of general guidelines that hopefully will allow us to be good people. Nothing is bad all of the time (the previous example of child molestation), and nothing is good all of the time either (for example, always being completely honest can cause a lot of pain).

That's my general approach to ethics.

So there.

Well, grades are in and it seems that I did not make Dean's list. I made 3 "A"s, 2 "B"s, and 1 "C". I'm really kind of pissed off about this because the only reason I got one of those "B"s is because the teacher has a strict attendence policy: miss more than three days and she drops your grade a whole letter. I missed three and was late twice (which counts as four). So even though I did "A" level work, I'm getting a "B". grrr.

Still, as one of my friends said, a 3.33 when taking 18 hours is not too bad. It still pisses me off though. How am I going to get into grad school with a 3.33? I worked so damn hard this semester and to not make Dean's list because of a technicality is really annoying.

Well, I'm done with classes. Right now, my status on Dean's list is kind of up for grabs. I have one class that has not posted grades yet. I'm pretty sure I will get an "A". If I do, I'll have a 3.5 GPA for the semester (suck!) and make the list; if I get a "B", I'll have a 3.33.

As for OCS, I'll be graduating on August 13th at MCB Quantico, Virginia. Just 30 minutes south of Washington DC. I'll be in class OCC186 PLC-C. I'm unsure at this time what company and platoon I'll be in, but I should know that before too long.

Here are some pics of what I'll be doing (warning: they're pretty large) from previous classes:

PT:
Pic #1

Drill:
Pic #1

Obstacle Courses:
Pic #1
Pic #2
Pic #3
Pic #4
Pic #5

Helo Extraction
Pic #1

Graduation:
Pic #1
Pic #2


Now all I have to do is make it through OCS. :)

For anyone that's interested in what I'll be going through this summer, feel free to check out the official site or this advice site. Fun stuff. Back to studying now.

Well folks, I just heard from my Captain that I've been picked up for OCS this summer. I report for duty on June 6th and I graduate (and get my commission) on August 13th. So that means everything is going to plan! I am psyched!! I'm sure you'll all hear about this as the countdown grows closer, so I won't go on and on now. 33 days to go. Now I work out 2 to 3 times a day! I'm sorry Heather, but this necessitates an "OORAH!!"

Since I had a few free minutes today, I took a Myers-Briggs personality test. I think its pretty dead on. If you like, you can check out my profile. My profile is as follows:

Pattern 7.3 INDIVIDUALISTIC TYPE (Low A, High O)
Individualistic types consider themselves to be unique and more intelligent than most people around them. In extreme cases they might be regarded as eccentric, but in most cases they are perceived by others as complex, well-read, imaginative, and industrious.

Heh. I love how personality types and horoscopes always pile on the platitudes. They never say anything like "You're an intelligent, complex, insufferable ass."

I can feel my brain decompressing. Almost done with the semester...

Well, I'm done with five finals so far, only one to go! I took my German final this morning (2.5 hours of doing German grammar...I think that was more painful than my FTX) and I think I did okay. As long as I pass the final, I pass the class - and that's all that matters because I never have to take German again! That's right folks! With the completion of this semester I fulfill my mandatory language requirements for my degree. Knowing my luck though, I'll probably end up learning Arabic or something, but I can live with that. :) I'm happy! As always, once I'm done with finals I be interesting again. But for now, here's the grade report straight off of Banweb:

Grades so far:
Anthropology: B (I suck...)
Logic: A (I actually have something like a 98)
Postmodernism: A (I survived that horrible course)
Not too bad huh?

Oh! And I've got a hot date too!