Boot Camp Date.

Good news came in yesterday about my boot camp date. As I said in my earlier post, I was hoping that one of the other guys in the Nuclear Field passed his CTI test and switched jobs so that I could move up my date to leave. Yesterday is when he took the test and passed by quite a margin. I was excited to hear that because it would give me the August date that I was hoping for but when I spoke with the recruiter he gave me even better news. Apparently when he called to start the process of switching Kevin from Nuke to CTI they said that there might be a date before August available if I wanted to take it. That would mean that I would be leaving next month! I can only hope that it comes through but until then I am happy that I at least got it moved up from December.

Podcasts that I watch regularly.

These are the top podcasts that I watch on a regular basis. If you have any other favorite(s) then please add them in the comments.

Alphabetical Order

1. Best of YouTube - Gives a few videos a week that are popular on YouTube. Easiest way to get the clips that everyone is talking about without any effort at all.

2. Cornerstone Simi Podcast - Sermons from Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley usually by Francis Chan who is a very good speaker.

3. Dilbert Animated Cartoons - Animated Dilbert cartoons each day. If you like reading the comics in the paper then why not get them in video form?

4. Dirty Jobs - Previews of the shows that air on Discovery channel. Pretty interesting stuff…

5. Drive Car Reviews - Car reviews on most of the new cars in the US. A solid resource when looking at the all around package from a vehicle. Gives road tests along with a full overview of specs.

6. Garage 419 - Show that looks at super cars and high performance vehicles. They not only show the best cars but they show what the cars look like on tracks and what they look like doing stunts. 

7. Mars Hill Church - Sermons from Mars Hill Church by Mark Driscoll. Also a good speaker.

8. The New Yorker Animated Cartoons - Again. why not get the animated versions of your comics?

9. Simply Youth Ministry Podcast - Great resource for anyone in youth ministry. Four experienced guys who answer questions and have a good time doing it.

10. Speed X Extreme Action Clips - Shows a variety of videos from television show previews to professional drifting and sport bike racing.

Nuclear Field.

Well I actually got in! The Navy approved both of the required waivers for me to join. I still have a hard time believing it. So here are the hard stats right now. I leave for boot camp in December but hopefully that will be moved up if one of the other guys from Norman switches jobs. If that happens I could move up to August instead. After boot camp I will be stationed in Charleston, SC for 12 months for “A” school and then will be there again for another 6 months or in New York for 6 months to finish up school. After that I am hoping to get into the STA-21 program which is sort of like rotc but for someone who has already enlisted. The benefit to that is that I would still be receiving m full Navy pay while going to school which sounds nice to me. After going through that I would reenlist as an officer for an additional 5 years. Until then I guess I will continue getting ready. Does anyone know if they make you work out in boot camp and if they do, do you think they would let me take a break if I asked nicely?

Afternoon Beaver

My sister and I were coming home one day when in the middle of the road we almost hit a beaver. Yes, thats right, a beaver. I couldn’t believe how big the thing was. Of course we quickly pulled over and pulled out our phones to take some pictures so I thought I would share. Some came out blurry so I tried to just post the clear ones. Enjoy!

Thank you for calling Directv…

Another new page in my life while I am trying to get everything else going is a job working for Directv as a technical support agent. What I find the funniest about my job is the type of people that call in. I have had everything from the 74 year old lady who is having trouble using the remote to the somewhat tech savvy “man” that knows it couldn’t possible be that the tv just wasn’t turned on. It does keep the job interesting though. What I like most about my job is all of the perks that come along with it. I will get completely free Directv with the biggest programming package they offer. I also get huge discounts like 21% off my AT&T bill each month and several others that the company represents. It has really surprised me all of the different companies that give us discounts. Directv also pays out a lot of money during busy times. They hand out everything from gift cards to tvs. On top of that they sometimes pay extra pay per hour (usually about $3-5) which is included in your time and a half pay if you are working overtime. To make a long story short it seems like I am going to really like this job.

Navy

For those of you I haven’t talked to in a while I would now like to inform you that I am trying to join the Navy. I get a huge feeling of disappointment I as I still use the word “try” because it has now been about a 4 month process. Just to make sure that I get all of the details I will start from the beginning.

As I said this all started about 4 months ago. That is when I first decided that I was going to check out the Navy and see what they could offer me. What I found out gave me a great new goal. 

The Navy told me that the first step I would need to do is to take the ASVAB. This would show exactly what fields I would qualify for. The best. or rather the most selective, is the Navy Nuclear Field. This was the only one that caught my eye so I knew that I needed to score well. I set up the quickest available time and took the test that same week. After getting the results they told me that I easily qualified for the Nuke program so the only thing left was to pass the physical. 

Although that didn’t seem bad when I first entered into the enlistment process it has turned out to be a nightmare. The first obstacle was the back surgery I had a few years ago. I knew that the doctor had fully released me after the surgery and that I was physically able to do any labor that would be required but I wasn’t the one that need to be convinced. After sending the records to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) it was disqualified and sent back. This was expected and I knew it was going to be a case where the Navy would have to waive my circumstances. Next we sent off for a waiver. This probably couldn’t have been done at a worse time because during christmas most of the staff takes leave and it took over a month to get any news back. Although they didn’t completely approve me to join they did say I was ok to get the physical.

This is were things have really been going downhill. 

I was really excited about being able to physical because I knew that my back was fine and now I would be able to show the doctors just how able-bodied I was. What I wasn’t counting on was the lack of sleep I was going to have from working until midnight and having to get up at 3:45a. Thats without mentioning the 45 mins of driving it took to get to the hotel and the additional 15 – 20 mins of checking in and getting ready. All in all I think I may have gotten and hour of sleep but I still doubt that. But getting back to the physical… the lack of sleep caused my blood pressure to skyrocket. This caused me to fail the blood pressure testing three times and finally pass it when they took it manually in the doctor’s office. Unfortunately the doctor took notice of the slightly irregular heart beat that I have which was quite a lot worse with the whole lack of sleep as well. The doctor said that I would need to get a consultation and get everything checked out before I would be able to pass the complete physical.

Now that I had another delay in the process I tried to reassure myself that it was just a few more weeks and everything would be fine when I go for the consultation. That seemed to be the case as I was able to get more sleep the night before and made each place I needed to be with plenty of time to spare. I got my file and took it to the Medical desk at MEPS and was surprised when they called me up almost immediately after asking me to sit down and asked if I had come in the day before to do what I thought I was there for. I told them I hadn’t been informed of the need to come in the day before so I hadn’t and she simply handed my file back to me and told me to go back to the Navy office. I thought it was some kind of joke but as I read my file it did say that I should’ve been there the day prior and that the current day was simply to have the doctor review and talk with me about the findings. 

To wrap things up so that this story isn’t any longer that it already is I was able to get the EKG and chest x-rays without having to make another special trip but the consultation was rescheduled for another day. That has prolonged my enlistment another few weeks. So hopefully next Friday I will finally hear the final word on my physical which will be sent off to the Navy Medical Board so they can tell me the final word on my waiver which will determine the final word on my enlistment as a whole. So as long as there aren’t anymore delays then it looks like I would be able to enlist in about a month. If there are more delays then it looks like I will be able to enlist in a month and 2 years….

I sure hope it is the quicker one.

OU Basketball v. Davidson

I was able to go to the OU basketball game yesterday v. Davidison and it was great. It was really close but we pulled it out even with the refs making horrible calls. Looks like we keep moving up in the tournament.

Mandles

Presidential Debate? Who cares… I want on TV.

I actually laughed out loud on this video so I had to share. Enjoy.

Youth Podcast.

I was given the opportunity to teach for our sunday night service (SNS) for the youth a few weeks back and I thought I would share. We record each speaker and put it on the youth website. If you are interested you can find the website here or to go directly to my teaching you can click here. Let me know what you think. You can also find the podcast on iTunes by searching for Sunday Night Service Podcast.

Rain in California.

I experienced my first actual rain here in CA today. When I woke up I could actually hear it pelting the roof outside. It almost reminded me of OK but it still was nowhere near as strong as the storms there. Since I haven’t seen rain in such a long time I thought some pictures were in order. As I got to work I was amazed at the site of a rainbow off in the distance. For some reason it was much clearer then I remember in the past and it came out rather well in the pictures. It made me remember God’s promise to Noah and brought some extra encouragement to me. Hopefully God will do the same in your life. 

Love Out Loud.

I started using a new small group video series called Love Out Loud. I am really enjoying it. It starts with a simple 5-10 min video of Doug Fields talking and is followed by a list of discussion questions. So far my students have picked up on the questions and it feels like they are getting some useful information. I would recommend this series to everyone if your looking for something that is easy, useful, and effective for a very low cost. A+

Wow. I wish I was that good.

Some funny pictures I ran across.

Why Universal Healthcare doesn’t work…