(no subject)
Okay, updates. Whee updates. Army stuff...
-Let's see... I bought a blender. Theoretically, it's so I'll start eating (erm, drinking?) healthier, but I've only got the vaguest idea of the proper way to use it. Insert things, press button*, eventually pour out (and, hopefully) ingest results. Which is fine, if you know, y'know, recipes. But I don't. So my natural inclination is to experiment. I don't see that things could go too badly wrong; I mean, it's a blender. As long as I keep my fingers out of it (insert joke here), I should be fine.
(However, just to be safe, if anyone wants to drop some health-drink or milkshake recipes in the comment section, that might come in handy. Thanks. :) )
-Also, someone torrented every episode of Night Court. This makes my heart happy. On the other hand, I'm only up to 1.1 percent, which means that at the current speed, it's going to take three weeks to get it all. This makes my heart impatient.
-Okay, serious stuff. Army stuff. Yargh argh.
I got my ASVAB scores in hand. Now, if you didn't already know, the army (and the military in general) is big on acronyms, and using individual letters instead of whole words. You know that bit in Good Morning Vietnam where Robin Williams makes fun of an officer by putting together two or three sentences by just saying individual letters? These guys didn't get why that was funny. I'm saying this because I've got my ASVAB scores in front of me and really, it's just two-letter headings and some numbers underneath. The officer in charge told me that these were very good numbers, and I believe him, but I feel vaguely the same way I feel when I'm giving blood and the nurse cheerfully tells me I have good veins and my a healthy pain response.** I'm smiling and nodding and hoping nobody notices the blank look of incomprehension in my eyes. So I'm going to look up what these scores mean and post them below in a comment. I'm all about building suspense, y'know.
Anyway, he looked at my scores, told me I did very well, and said that basically that meant that I could have any job that was coming open in the army if I wanted it. Frickin' awesome, right? Then he goes to the job listings for the next year.
So apparently the army's overstaffed right now. Result of the economy, obviously. So the only jobs that he can find that are open for the next year are infantry. This was unthrilling. I'd already expressed a preference not to get shot at (he mentioned I might be interested in joining the Special Forces, which was flattering), so he understood that I wasn't aiming in that direction. This, by the way, is a guy who commanded tanks, was a scout in the middle east, and worked with army intelligence afterwards, so metaphorically edging away from the battlefield was awkward, but I guess he took it okay. He made a couple of calls, and got them to put a seven-day hold on a position as Satellite Communication Systems Operator / Maintainer. Which is pretty close to my top two options (either something in languages, or something in technology), and gave me a date for a physical (saturday morning).
I'm naturally wary of people trying to convince me of anything. It's a natural reaction to growing up in an advertising culture. But I don't think he was pulling any really severe sales tactics on me. I mean, a couple of minor ones; trying to appeal to what he thought I was after from the military (which makes sense), and the bit with the "all I've got left is infantry, wait, let me make a phone call" felt kinda routine, but that's probably just an informal way of filtering prospects after the ASVAB. I think this is actually a good offer, and I honestly think he was trying to give me good advice. And since I was going to join up no matter what was available, I'm happy that this job description doesn't seem likely to involve the concept of bullets or shrapnel.***
One minor hitch is that this job requires Secret (yes, with the capital S) security clearance. So to whoever (whomever?) got stuck with the job of slogging through my LJ to see if there's anything you should be worried about: Hi. You have my sympathies. Seriously. I wrote all this stuff****, so I know what you're going through.
So, in short: Army wants me to do something I was hoping they'd want me to do. I go for a physical exam Saturday morning, and if they accept me (the only reason I see that they wouldn't, at this point, is my eyesight), then I sign something, and I ship out on August 30th. Nine weeks basic training at somewhere called Fort Sill in Oklahoma (oy), a break of maybe a week (?) and then 26 weeks of training in Fort Gordon, Georgia. During this time, they will fix my head and train me to do something I could probably get paid to do if and when I leave the army.
Theoretically, these are all good things. And I'm still nervous. Argh.
...
Oh, yeah, the ASVAB scores. I was going to post a link with a simple, or at least a comprehensive, explanation of how the scores worked. But there isn't one. This one helps, but yeesh. It's understandable, but this is a long enough entry already without me staggering around pretending I know what everything means.
AFQT 99, GT 142, GM 139, EL 140, CL 139, MM 138, SC 140, CO 139, FA 139, OF 140, ST 141.
Heh. CL is clerical. I could be an army chaplin, apparently. Muhahaha...
And now I'm going to sleep.
*I bought one that's only got one button. I'm being cautious.
**"You'd have a healthy pain response, too, if someone were trying to draw blood from your humerus," said my inner monologue.
***Later, I'll find this sentence funny when I'm trying to dig the remains of a parabolic antenna out of a mortar crater in some town without enough vowels in its name.
****Except for anything labeled "drunk post." That was somebody else.
-Let's see... I bought a blender. Theoretically, it's so I'll start eating (erm, drinking?) healthier, but I've only got the vaguest idea of the proper way to use it. Insert things, press button*, eventually pour out (and, hopefully) ingest results. Which is fine, if you know, y'know, recipes. But I don't. So my natural inclination is to experiment. I don't see that things could go too badly wrong; I mean, it's a blender. As long as I keep my fingers out of it (insert joke here), I should be fine.
(However, just to be safe, if anyone wants to drop some health-drink or milkshake recipes in the comment section, that might come in handy. Thanks. :) )
-Also, someone torrented every episode of Night Court. This makes my heart happy. On the other hand, I'm only up to 1.1 percent, which means that at the current speed, it's going to take three weeks to get it all. This makes my heart impatient.
-Okay, serious stuff. Army stuff. Yargh argh.
I got my ASVAB scores in hand. Now, if you didn't already know, the army (and the military in general) is big on acronyms, and using individual letters instead of whole words. You know that bit in Good Morning Vietnam where Robin Williams makes fun of an officer by putting together two or three sentences by just saying individual letters? These guys didn't get why that was funny. I'm saying this because I've got my ASVAB scores in front of me and really, it's just two-letter headings and some numbers underneath. The officer in charge told me that these were very good numbers, and I believe him, but I feel vaguely the same way I feel when I'm giving blood and the nurse cheerfully tells me I have good veins and my a healthy pain response.** I'm smiling and nodding and hoping nobody notices the blank look of incomprehension in my eyes. So I'm going to look up what these scores mean and post them below in a comment. I'm all about building suspense, y'know.
Anyway, he looked at my scores, told me I did very well, and said that basically that meant that I could have any job that was coming open in the army if I wanted it. Frickin' awesome, right? Then he goes to the job listings for the next year.
So apparently the army's overstaffed right now. Result of the economy, obviously. So the only jobs that he can find that are open for the next year are infantry. This was unthrilling. I'd already expressed a preference not to get shot at (he mentioned I might be interested in joining the Special Forces, which was flattering), so he understood that I wasn't aiming in that direction. This, by the way, is a guy who commanded tanks, was a scout in the middle east, and worked with army intelligence afterwards, so metaphorically edging away from the battlefield was awkward, but I guess he took it okay. He made a couple of calls, and got them to put a seven-day hold on a position as Satellite Communication Systems Operator / Maintainer. Which is pretty close to my top two options (either something in languages, or something in technology), and gave me a date for a physical (saturday morning).
I'm naturally wary of people trying to convince me of anything. It's a natural reaction to growing up in an advertising culture. But I don't think he was pulling any really severe sales tactics on me. I mean, a couple of minor ones; trying to appeal to what he thought I was after from the military (which makes sense), and the bit with the "all I've got left is infantry, wait, let me make a phone call" felt kinda routine, but that's probably just an informal way of filtering prospects after the ASVAB. I think this is actually a good offer, and I honestly think he was trying to give me good advice. And since I was going to join up no matter what was available, I'm happy that this job description doesn't seem likely to involve the concept of bullets or shrapnel.***
One minor hitch is that this job requires Secret (yes, with the capital S) security clearance. So to whoever (whomever?) got stuck with the job of slogging through my LJ to see if there's anything you should be worried about: Hi. You have my sympathies. Seriously. I wrote all this stuff****, so I know what you're going through.
So, in short: Army wants me to do something I was hoping they'd want me to do. I go for a physical exam Saturday morning, and if they accept me (the only reason I see that they wouldn't, at this point, is my eyesight), then I sign something, and I ship out on August 30th. Nine weeks basic training at somewhere called Fort Sill in Oklahoma (oy), a break of maybe a week (?) and then 26 weeks of training in Fort Gordon, Georgia. During this time, they will fix my head and train me to do something I could probably get paid to do if and when I leave the army.
Theoretically, these are all good things. And I'm still nervous. Argh.
...
Oh, yeah, the ASVAB scores. I was going to post a link with a simple, or at least a comprehensive, explanation of how the scores worked. But there isn't one. This one helps, but yeesh. It's understandable, but this is a long enough entry already without me staggering around pretending I know what everything means.
AFQT 99, GT 142, GM 139, EL 140, CL 139, MM 138, SC 140, CO 139, FA 139, OF 140, ST 141.
Heh. CL is clerical. I could be an army chaplin, apparently. Muhahaha...
And now I'm going to sleep.
*I bought one that's only got one button. I'm being cautious.
**"You'd have a healthy pain response, too, if someone were trying to draw blood from your humerus," said my inner monologue.
***Later, I'll find this sentence funny when I'm trying to dig the remains of a parabolic antenna out of a mortar crater in some town without enough vowels in its name.
****Except for anything labeled "drunk post." That was somebody else.