This is really funny, because it happened word for word yesterday. My flight commander asked me if I knew what time it was, and I said, "Sorry, I don't have my phone."

Mirror of LJ

Basic is still going alright. Our kids are doing pretty well and everything. As a class, I suppose 2012 is doing well enough. They got stuck with a kind of lame motto, though. Sucks to them. It's just, "Never falter, never fail." I guess no one had particularly high hopes for the class as a whole? "Come on, guys, don't mess up!" For the most part they are half way decent at marching by now, and they don't make too many mistakes on meal decorum anymore. Some of the basics in my flight are pretty weak physically, but we are working to correct that. A couple of the basics I will be really happy to have in our squadron, but there are a few that I hope don't make it through BCT. I am kind of upset about the fact that 2012 gets to play intramurals. It's not entirely because 2010 didn't play intramurals during basic (thereby setting the standard of excellence and a BCT worth conquering), although that is part of the reason. But I also don't like it because I am our squadron's soccer coach, and so far, they have only had intramurals on my days off. So even though I don't have to wake up at 0330, which is nice, I can't really do much or go anywhere because I have to be at the Academy for one hour in the middle of the day. It fairly ruined my plans for the 4th of July weekend. I was going to Cripple Creek with David to spend the 4th of July weekend, or at least the first half of it, with his family. But he wanted to leave Thursday afternoon, which would have been fine for me because I wasn't working Friday, except that 2012 had intramurals at 0730 on Friday morning, so David left and I stayed. I think David might've waited if I begged him to, but he really wanted to go, and I told him he should go. It would've been awfully selfish to make my best friend lose half a day with his family just because I wanted to come. It was alright, in the end, I like being alone too. Instead on the 4th of July I got to coach a soccer game against Guts, which we lost because of the referee (who happened to be Guts cadre). He gave them an indirect kick from six meters, which was the correct call, and our goalie made the save once they shot it. But then, the ref suddenly decided that he had made a mistake, and it was supposed to be indirect from 20 meters, which it wasn't supposed to be, so he gave them another kick. That one went in, and we ended up losing by one. Today, though, we won our soccer game against Hellcats. Hellcats was actually a much better team than Guts, but our goalie was getting back into the swing of things (he made some amazing saves this game) and we didn't have such a significant demoralizing event. We still had the same bad ref, but none of the stupid calls he made, or didn't make, changed the game this time. I really can't wait for first BCT to be over, though, and to go home. No waking up at 0330, seeing my family all the time instead of dumb basics, and getting a car! Hooah! Speaking of my car, I have been trying to decide what I should name it. I have two names that I like, but I don't know which one to pick yet. I guess I don't know the car that well personally, yet, and maybe I'll know better after driving to Colorado. But anyway, the two names I have are Ethan and Lysander. Tell me which one you like better, especially if you know the car!

PS. I decided to copy my entries both places, so it would be less confusing. Or maybe more confusing, I don't know.

PPS. Please tell me if the music is working.

this blog has been moved to http://dog-and-boy.livejournal.com and will remain there indefinitely.

See you there!

-Ani

I thought I'd write today about something that one of the professors mentioned in Humanities class. It was actually last class that we talked about it, today we had a different subject and I will write about that too later. He was talking about how at any engineering school and especially a service academy there is a fair amount of pressure to chose a technical major, and the temptation to believe that technical "hard" classes are the only ones that are important. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. But the real problems that the military faces have nothing to do with a lack of qualified engineers or technical knowledge. Of course we need those people, but they aren't hard to get. We don't have a shortage of engineers in Iraq, we have a shortage of translators and people who understand the culture. The mess at Abu Ghraib didn't happen because the guards needed more technical training, it was because they needed to learn how to be human. It was a good thought, and one worth considering, in my opinion. Sometimes it seems a lot of the faculty and departments are desperate to prove why they are relevant, but I think that was the best argument I have ever heard from any of them, the most sincere and the most relevant.
Today in Humanities, we talked about the first piece of literature that we will be reading, The Song of Roland. It was written somewhere between the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Old French or Anglo-Norman. It sounds a lot more like Latin than French. But it was the best, because one of the professors for the class is a Romance language philologist. He read some parts of it, and it was beautiful, it sent chills down my spine. I love old languages, especially when I understand some of it and if there is a translation nearby so I can look at the bits I miss. Very sadly, Dr. Reagan's husband (Dr. Reagan is one of my favorite professors at the Academy, she is awesome.), died about ten years ago, but was a Germanic language philologist (including Old English and Old Norse and other languages (I don't remember if she said Gothic (which I'm studying right now), or not) that really fascinate me), so I won't get to hear anything from him. She always tells me she wishes I could've met him. But at any rate, I am really looking forward to studying it.
Here is something really odd that happened yesterday. I don't really know what to make of it but I thought I'd write about it anyway. Coach wanted me to help him with some stuff, mostly paperwork from our tournament, so I worked on that Monday and yesterday and finished yesterday. But anyway, I was working on it with Kali, one of the girls on the team, and pretty much out of nowhere coach said in his usual Egyptian accent, "Kali, how come you cannot be...cute like Anthony?" Ummmmm. Awkward. Maybe if I was a little younger I would just take it as a compliment, but I definitely wasn't expecting anything like that and have no idea what made him say it. There are never any boring moments when you're around coach. Even when you're just submitting scores and rosters to the NCAA.
Today, early this morning, our four degrees triumphed over Fightin' Fourth in a knowledge contest. I just had to wake up a few minutes earlier than normal to go to it since they weren't calling minutes, so I was there to cheer them on. We were losing up until the last three questions. It was quite exciting. Unfortunately for the four degrees in fourth squadron, not only was winning the competition their last hope of getting "un-restricted" this weekend, but one of their own four degrees called their training officer "sir" instead of "ma'am." A training officer who has visited other squadrons just to yell at four degrees who made the same mistake. I only hope they are all still alive tomorrow morning.
There were some other things that I wanted to write about too, but I don't remember them now, and I just have to finish my Russian homework before I can go to bed, and I think I'm gonna go. If I remember them, maybe I'll write them later. Sorry I haven't written for a while. Maybe I will when I'm at David's house this weekend. Farewell.