Friday, June 29, 2007

Mr. Pox

Marines will charge a hill toward gun fire because we are told to do so, we will show tremendous courage and self-sacrifice when it comes to doing the impossible. Yet when told to go to medical many of us simply break down. I went to medical last week and was informed I needed 3 shots and some blood drawn. One of these shots being a smallpox shot. A show of hands how many older Americans and or prior service members have the luxury of knowing exactly what I speak of? I read the pamphlet given to me. I then read the symptoms for the shot. I liked my odds of getting smallpox as to putting up with the symptoms for the next 3-4 weeks. Another side effect of my volley of shots is I can snort Anthrax and potentially only get really sick now.

You know what docs need more of? Humor. Doc doesn't really like it when you ask how good he is at drawing blood. It was a simple question, I don't like seeing needles stick in me. I also don't like the thought of you poking around my arm trying to find a vein. To the doc that drew my blood, "Lighten up". It was only a joke when I said you have one shot to draw my blood, then we are using yours! No really a joke Ha Ha Ha (forced laugh).

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Thanks to CEC!

You guys are so awesome. I opened up my box to be amazed by all the goodies in it. My Sgt did complain the box was a bit heavy when he had to carry it from the company office. So I bribed him later with some goodies :)

I miss being around you guys, you truly are an extended family.

Will

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Happy Birthday Will - 6-27-07

I'm writing this on Tuesday, but the emails to the subscribers will come out early Wednesday morning. Hopefully we'll all have a chance to join you here for wishing you well!

Happy 29th Birthday Will!!! With the ever changing face of hallmark, I guess we will make this our own little Hallmark store to celebrate holidays with you! While it would be a blast to go somewhere for dinner or the Taste of Chicago, I have complete faith that you'll go somewhere fun and have a beer or so with your buddies out there!

Take Care!!!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

3rd week in Lejeune

Saturday morning after payday on a Marine Corps base. It is very calm and serene. I am in "boots and utes" (boots-an-youtes)which is a slang term for uniform minus cammie blouse. I am going on a short 2.5 - 3 mile run with one of the guys here. He needs some extra running.

After reorganizing the shop for the 3rd time in as many weeks, apparently I am in the S & R section, Shipping and Recieving. We are the backbone of the shop, gear comes in paper work is tracked. We are inventory control for all the sections.

There was a flak jacket class for a small group of us this week when we were issued the new and improved flak jacket. Flak jacket = armor worn to protect Marines from bursting amunitions such as grenade shrapnel and small arms fire upto 9 mm. They put metal plates in it to protect us from rifle rounds, all complete it's about a 25 lb vest. We received our jackets from supply and after dumping the contents out on the floor, we noticed there was about 15 pieces to this contraption. Yeah not a big fan of lots of little pieces to keep up with. 3 hours later we have a completed flak jacket with all the little pieces attached.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Mailing Address

While in Lejeune here is my mailing address

Cpl Ellis William F
2nd Supply BN 2nd MLG Maint CO 3rd PLT
PSC 20128 Camp Lejeune NC 28542

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Spreadsheet...Database...its all the same

Apparently in the Marine Corps a spreadsheet is a database. Sometimes even a database is really just a fancy spreadsheet. You really don't correct officers when they tell you they have this wonderful database that someone made for them that tracks all this information and then when you look at the icons on their screen its just a link to an .xls file (for all you in non-geek land that is an excel file). You smile and go "wow sir, I can see where that would help you". All the while you are looking for a quick exit because the project that normally would take 4 days has been promised in 2.

Another common misconception is that just because you task a Private to type the data in your "database". Doesn't mean he/she really cared about what went in it. I kid you not, Alex had a database, errr umm a spreadsheet, where the PFC "guessed" what the social security number that was written on the paper was. We won't go into the correct course of action for the Marine to follow (it includes looking up on the computer what the correct soc # is, in one of the other 300 spreadsheets). At least he highlighted in orange the cell to let us know he "guessed" at the value. OnePurdue would be proud of his color choices!

Monday, June 4, 2007

1st week in Lejeune

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After many days of sitting around and waiting to be told to sit around and wait some more, we finally made it to Lejeune. The chow hall is about a mile away from the barracks (really that is all Marines care about is chow). This means we get a few more dollars a day while I am activated. I think I am now making a whopping 1.64 an hour (Marines care about pay as well). We got a bit of time off this past weekend and went to the beach. Yes there was a small tropical storm, but eh who cares? I'll try to post the pictures later. For those of you waiting on an address, I've been given an address and is has changed twice in just as many days. I think I'll wait till they get it right before I post it

Photos from beach excursion (actually mostly us just getting stuck).

http://picasaweb.google.com/will.purdue/Beach6_2_07