I know that I deserve to be an Early Promote Sailor but I also know
there are politics involved to the Nth degree and our rankings are
generally decided by a bunch of guys who missed out on a fraternity in
college and are trying to relive that experience now. As most things,
it's a big popularity contest and if they don't like you, then your
pretty well hosed. It is a sham and a pathetic way to choose the future
leaders of the Navy and it's one of the main reasons why the leadership
is so FUBAR in this organization right now. I don't get spun up during
eval season, per se, but I do not like the system. It is broke and as
long as the Navy continues to operate this way, it will never get fixed.

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This weekend we hit the halfway point of this deployment. I actually
can't believe it's here already. That is not to say it has been easy, it
has been anything but.

As usual most of the challenges start in the division and with the chain
of command. I have certainly struggled adjusting to our new Chief and 
every time I think I have things figured out and am working on the right 
path he finds a way to slap me right back down. We had a nice heart
to heart tonight and he told me that for all the great things that I am
doing he says it is overshadowed by my attitude in the division. In a
nutshell I told him that I am unhappy where things currently are in my
life and that unhappiness is coming from my dissatisfaction with my job.
I am tired of working in a place that celebrates mediocrity, working
with people that are substandard and having the goalposts constantly
moved. I want to work in a place that makes me better and work with
people that challenge me (in a positive way) and I am in a completely
opposite place right now. It starts at the top and filters its way all
the way down to the E-1 in my shop. He said he knows all this and that I
have a job to do and will just have to suck it up which I agreed with
but told him that nothing he can say or do will quell my frustration and
dissatisfaction of working here.

We are going through a time of change right now on the ship. We are
getting a new Command Master Chief (THANK GOD!) and the Executive
Officer will be moving up to take command of the ship in the next couple
months. Most people are pretty happy about that as well. I still have
almost a year left here and it is going to be a daily struggle to get
through it. I really don't know what my future in the Navy is going to
be. I just know the present is not what I want it to be. Here is hoping
the second half of this deployment goes better then the first half.

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I think my new blogging mission when it comes to this job is going to be compiling a list of things I like about the Navy and should use as a reason to stay in and the things that I hate, despise, loathe about the Navy and should use as a reason to get out. It will be interesting to see which list (not even going to be close) comes out on top.

First Con is being a highly trained, incredibly dedicated….garbage man. Now I don’t mean just somebody who has to clean up after themselves and other people but I literally mean dumpster diving. Here is a prime example from this week. If you seriously care about the ocean you may want to stop reading this right now. It is the policy of the Navy, in general, that we dump our trash overboard while out to sea. It’s like a Fire Sale, everything goes (except Plastics.) I suppose it is relatively “green” and a widely utilized and accepted practice but I still wish we didn’t have to do it for a number of reasons (e.g. I drink the same water we are dumping into.)

The way we accomplish this dumping is by pulping all the food and paper products but last week our pulper had a casualty (a fancy way to say that something is broke) and is no longer functioning. It’s hard to fathom the amount of trash we produce on board until the device you use to get rid of it, breaks. Well after it broke, the garbage started piling up in the trash room (which is coincidentally very near the food stores room) and it started to cause some obvious sanitation issues.

On the orders of someone who makes much more money then I do, the trash petty officers were told to start piling the trash in an outdoor walkway on the starboard (right) side of the ship. Within 2 days almost 100 bags of rotting food, leaking plastics and soggy paper trash covered a space nearly 100 feet long and 8 feet high all while basking in 110 degree heat. It was revolting.

Well whenever something revolting rears its head around here its First Class Petty Officers to the rescue. We, as a group, were told to get the garbage separated and repackaged so that it could be disposed of in whatever manner the chain of command saw fit. Of course this wouldn’t have been a problem if it had been separated in the first place before being stored topside. Separating is not a new system around here, it has always been in place but apparently not happening as it should have been.

So we got our people together, after a fair amount of back and forth, and went through trash in 100 degree heat. It was pretty much exactly how you think it would be. Incompetent leadership and degrading work, just one more reason I am proud to be an American Sailor.

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Two of my favorite things to do. It’s another deployment so I actually have time to dust off this old blog and start to work out some of my frustrations with this ship and the Navy in general. Actually I have been working some of it out by actually working out (for real) using the “Spartacus workout” (http://www.menshealth.com/spartacus/workouts/) Now mind you, I have never even seen the show that this is supposedly based on and never met a Spartan but I can tell you that I felt like I had been beaten up by a Spartan the day after I did my first workout. Truthfully, I like the workout and I feel good after doing it and I feel myself getting stronger.

They say that on a Navy deployment people go in one of two ways, get in the best shape of their life or become even huger, fatter slobs then they already are. I am hoping to avoid the latter. I started the deployment 7 weeks ago at about 184-ish libbys and my post workout weigh in yesterday was 165.5 libbys. NOTICE: This is not a reflection of the workout per se but more about eating less of this amazing and delicious navy chow and drinking no beer for months on end. The first thing my Chief asked me was if I was sick. Thanks for the encouragement. Which leads me to my next point. I fucking hate this place. I thought last deployment was bad but I didn’t realize how bad it could be. Worst possible schedule, terrible CO, terrible chain of command. There is absolutely no redeeming qualities to this place. I like the Navy and I like (a very select few) people, but the people in charge of this place are forcing me out. It’s regrettable seeing as I just made E-6 and will finally start getting paid this month but I need to work for a real company that knows how to treat people and this ain’t it.

More ranting and raving to follow

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Heading to San Diego tomorrow night for school. It's going to be great to get off the ship for a while and enjoy one of my favorite cities. I just hope that everything works out in regard to my travel arrangements. Even with less that a day to go, most things are still up in the air. Typical for where I work.

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My first mix with my iPad

Mosilife_1.m4a Listen on Posterous

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Very Cool Visual Effects!

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Sent from my iPad

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Just ordered NBA League Pass Broadband Choice for the year since I will be here for most of the season. I got to choose 7 teams to follow and they are:

1) Orlando Magic (duh! GO MAGIC!!!!)
2) Miami Heat (Can't Deny the star power but still hate them)
3) Boston Celtics (Mostly just for Rajon Rondo)
4) Oklahoma City Thunder (Kevin Durant is redic)
5) Chicago Bulls (Derick Rose plus added Carlos Boozer)
6) Milwaukee Bucks (Just wanna see how crazy Brandon Jennings looks)
7) Dallas Mavericks (Mark Cuban is entertaining TV if nothing else)

I should get the Lakers and maybe the Clippers and Kings on local TV. Now they just need to get that iPad app out and I will be set. Tip off tomorrow. I am feeling FAN-TASTIC!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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Some pictures from our SAMEX today. We were the only ship that shoot one missile (other ships had to shoot at least two) and the only ship to hit our moving target. It was a good day.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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So, I am back underway for the month of July for RIMPAC 2010. It’s a multi-national war game exercise with 14 nations and about 30,000 military members from all 4 branches plus the coast guard. It’s actually pretty cool and has already been more interesting then the entire deployment to 5^th fleet earlier this year. Only one problem and that is I am on nights and there ain’t shit happening around here at night. Normally it wouldn’t be such big deal because I could read my Kindle or listen to music or podcasts but apparently while I was gone on leave the chain of command instituted a new “no electronics of any kind” policy which is now in place.

This policy is killing me. It’s hard enough to sit here staring at a screen for 12 hours when I have things to entertain myself with but when I have nothing and it’s like a library in here? Let’s just say it ain’t for me. I attempted to broach the subject tonight with my senior chief and he isn’t budging an inch. In fact since we got underway he has made things even more difficult by blocking access to Facebook. Now of course, I am an IT and could easily get around it but that’s not the point. The whole military industrial complex is moving head first into social media and it’s ridiculous that we can’t even access the site that they are using to post information to! As an example search for RIMPAC on Facebook and see what comes up.

On to the whole reason we are out here. RIMPAC is a week old and like I said before has been pretty interesting. It’s a 40 day exercise with no port time back in Hawaii. We work and have exercises planned everyday. Earlier today we had a sinkex which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. We sunk a target. But it was pretty bad ass because instead of some stupid sandbar or inflatable target, this time it was a decommissioned ship. We sunk the USS New Orleans (LPH-11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_Orleans_%28LPH-11%29 using our 5” gun. We shot 10 rounds from about 2 miles out and then were scheduled to come around and shoot 20 more but ended up only needing 10 more to send this ship to its final resting place. It was quite an amazing show of naval gunfire.

Later this morning we have an exercise where we will shoot a missile from the ship and try to reach another unknown target. This will be the first missile we have shot since I have been onboard and while I like to think I will see it happen, it’s actually more likely that I will be sleeping and sleep right through the whole thing.

Well I got 4 hours left till I can get back in my rack and sleep the day away. Hope everybody back home and around the world is having a great weekend.

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I told him the next day if Hallmark made a card that said "Thanks for
cleaning up my puke" he would most certainly be getting one.

I made it 200 days without throwing up once; now let's see if I can make
it the next 10 till we hit dry land back in Paradise.

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