The Long Gap
I think that I always start these off by saying that it has been a long time since last I posted. At least that's pretty much how it is when I'm not drunk that is. =) For some reason I just sort of let my interest drift around all the time. It keeps things interesting when I'm not doing the same thing all of the time. I suppose that's why I simultaneously adore and despise my job in it's entirety. The last post I had did a very poor job of explaining away what exactly my situation was at that juncture. That was due very much to the drunken-nes of it.
So, that being said, I'll do a quick fly by of my current job situation, which will probably be different by the time this post is read by anyone of consequence. Up until about two weeks ago I retained all of my previous titles, senior tech, TMDE coordinator, and Senior Power Plant Operator. Now I'm one less of those. I'm no longer a tech, no longer working 12 hr shift, and soon to be power plant operator no more. For the loss of these things I have a little remorse. I do truly love fixing things. I think it is one of the things I could do ceaselessly and never tire of. Power plant operator on the other hand has caused me nothing but grief, although to some small degree it kinda feels good to have dominion over a very large power plant. *shrug* The reason that I'll soon be prime power no more is due to the fact that our new prime power NCO got here earlier than expected. I really like him. He's a bull, for an old broken guy. XD When I gave him a flyby of our current power situation he was very much less than pleased. After he's done in-processing I'll finally be free of that. On top of all that, things in the shop have calmed down for the most part after the conclusion of the AAME (Army Award for Maintenance Excellence) in March. We won runner-up in the heavy TDA category, but I'm not gona try to explain that one. Suffice to say we did exceptionally well considering our abysmal showing last year. And, as a result, I am currently in the process of taking over another of our senior tech's duties while she goes on leave to accept the award. So I get to add system administrator to my list of job titles for a short time. Should be fun.
Oh, and I'm not gona go into the manning situation in or shop except to say that 70% of our techs are either green or retarded, because that's a wholly different rant. Mostly retarded.
I've been working 9-5 shifts for about a month now, and I must say it has it's advantages. The most noticeable of which is that I now have a very predictable schedule, and as such I am finally able to play Magic in Yongsan every week. Recently we have been playing a lot of Standard Constructed in preparation for the upcoming military regionals here. In other words, I have a chance to be invited to play in the US nationals in Chicago. Which would be just beyond awesome. I'm gona give it my all in hopes of making top two, as those are the only ones that receive invites. For the last few weeks I've been running Red Deck Wins, which is a mono red aggressive combination of cheap, fast creatures and direct damage spells. I haven't really had a lot of success with it, but I'm still working on it. I may just give it up and play Mono Black Control. We'll see though.
I've also been hanging out with people more often since about mid March. Unfortunately, it often involves alcohol, and, on more than one occasion, I have gone overboard. I'm not proud of it really. I mean sure I'll laugh and joke about that stuff with the best of them, but every time it just doesn't seem like that's really a part of myself that I acknowledge. I think a better way of putting it is that it all feels fake to me. I just can't tell if the people I'm with are tolerating my presence, or if I'm actually welcome there. Of course, I felt the same way in college too, so I suppose that it is probably the later, but there will always be that little tinge of doubt. I suppose the real test is if you are warmly welcomed after a long separation. But enough speculation, lines of thought like that only lead to depression. At any rate, over the memorial day weekend, I went snowboarding with Chris. Chris is one of my NCOs by the way. E=5 to be more precise. Great guy, if a bit on the odd side, but who among humanity can be said to be straight laced all of the time. We went to a place called Tiger World. It's a cool place. It's located in one of the suburbs, I guess you would call it that, of Seoul called Bugae. It is a ridiculously large building that contains an indoor skiing/snowboard hill as well as a water park and spa. It is truly amazing. Another thing that amazed me was that there was a kid of like age 12 in there snowboarding better than many of the older people, myself included. I'm not too proud to admit that I am not good at snowboarding. Of course it was my first time, and, according to Chris, I picked it up really quickly. Despite all of the times that I took a header into the hill. I had one really gnarly crash too. What happened was I was trying to make S-curves down the hill without slowing down on the back edge of the board. I made the turn to the right, but over corrected when I went to go the other direction. As a result, I landed on my elbows and my helmet and rolled down the hill for a ways. That was murder on my hips, but I laughed it off, got back up and kept going. It was great fun. It would have been better if I knew the train system better. The reason I say this is because we spent a good eight hours on the metro rail, and it was pretty much standing room only the whole way. But really, I can't say the train ride really colored my mood at all.
All in all I think the only real downside I've encountered since I moved to day-ho shift is that I'm no longer engaging the operators. I've missed that really. While there are some of my colleagues that do not take kindly to the operators, I find that there are a few of them whose company I find much more enjoyable to the company of my co-workers. I still see most of them often enough to be sociable, so I'm content with that for now.
If you haven't figured it out by now my mood is:
So, that being said, I'll do a quick fly by of my current job situation, which will probably be different by the time this post is read by anyone of consequence. Up until about two weeks ago I retained all of my previous titles, senior tech, TMDE coordinator, and Senior Power Plant Operator. Now I'm one less of those. I'm no longer a tech, no longer working 12 hr shift, and soon to be power plant operator no more. For the loss of these things I have a little remorse. I do truly love fixing things. I think it is one of the things I could do ceaselessly and never tire of. Power plant operator on the other hand has caused me nothing but grief, although to some small degree it kinda feels good to have dominion over a very large power plant. *shrug* The reason that I'll soon be prime power no more is due to the fact that our new prime power NCO got here earlier than expected. I really like him. He's a bull, for an old broken guy. XD When I gave him a flyby of our current power situation he was very much less than pleased. After he's done in-processing I'll finally be free of that. On top of all that, things in the shop have calmed down for the most part after the conclusion of the AAME (Army Award for Maintenance Excellence) in March. We won runner-up in the heavy TDA category, but I'm not gona try to explain that one. Suffice to say we did exceptionally well considering our abysmal showing last year. And, as a result, I am currently in the process of taking over another of our senior tech's duties while she goes on leave to accept the award. So I get to add system administrator to my list of job titles for a short time. Should be fun.
Oh, and I'm not gona go into the manning situation in or shop except to say that 70% of our techs are either green or retarded, because that's a wholly different rant. Mostly retarded.
I've been working 9-5 shifts for about a month now, and I must say it has it's advantages. The most noticeable of which is that I now have a very predictable schedule, and as such I am finally able to play Magic in Yongsan every week. Recently we have been playing a lot of Standard Constructed in preparation for the upcoming military regionals here. In other words, I have a chance to be invited to play in the US nationals in Chicago. Which would be just beyond awesome. I'm gona give it my all in hopes of making top two, as those are the only ones that receive invites. For the last few weeks I've been running Red Deck Wins, which is a mono red aggressive combination of cheap, fast creatures and direct damage spells. I haven't really had a lot of success with it, but I'm still working on it. I may just give it up and play Mono Black Control. We'll see though.
I've also been hanging out with people more often since about mid March. Unfortunately, it often involves alcohol, and, on more than one occasion, I have gone overboard. I'm not proud of it really. I mean sure I'll laugh and joke about that stuff with the best of them, but every time it just doesn't seem like that's really a part of myself that I acknowledge. I think a better way of putting it is that it all feels fake to me. I just can't tell if the people I'm with are tolerating my presence, or if I'm actually welcome there. Of course, I felt the same way in college too, so I suppose that it is probably the later, but there will always be that little tinge of doubt. I suppose the real test is if you are warmly welcomed after a long separation. But enough speculation, lines of thought like that only lead to depression. At any rate, over the memorial day weekend, I went snowboarding with Chris. Chris is one of my NCOs by the way. E=5 to be more precise. Great guy, if a bit on the odd side, but who among humanity can be said to be straight laced all of the time. We went to a place called Tiger World. It's a cool place. It's located in one of the suburbs, I guess you would call it that, of Seoul called Bugae. It is a ridiculously large building that contains an indoor skiing/snowboard hill as well as a water park and spa. It is truly amazing. Another thing that amazed me was that there was a kid of like age 12 in there snowboarding better than many of the older people, myself included. I'm not too proud to admit that I am not good at snowboarding. Of course it was my first time, and, according to Chris, I picked it up really quickly. Despite all of the times that I took a header into the hill. I had one really gnarly crash too. What happened was I was trying to make S-curves down the hill without slowing down on the back edge of the board. I made the turn to the right, but over corrected when I went to go the other direction. As a result, I landed on my elbows and my helmet and rolled down the hill for a ways. That was murder on my hips, but I laughed it off, got back up and kept going. It was great fun. It would have been better if I knew the train system better. The reason I say this is because we spent a good eight hours on the metro rail, and it was pretty much standing room only the whole way. But really, I can't say the train ride really colored my mood at all.
All in all I think the only real downside I've encountered since I moved to day-ho shift is that I'm no longer engaging the operators. I've missed that really. While there are some of my colleagues that do not take kindly to the operators, I find that there are a few of them whose company I find much more enjoyable to the company of my co-workers. I still see most of them often enough to be sociable, so I'm content with that for now.
If you haven't figured it out by now my mood is: