Ensigns Log, Stardate 47653.2 Genesis

Ensigns log, supplementary. Hello all. The 31^st of May is my birthday! Yippee! I will be on duty on the 31st, but at least this gives me time to reflect on the past years accomplishments, trials, and tribulations. So what have I done in this past year? Here is a look at what has happened to me in part of this last year:

1. I got back from Deployment (Oct – 2008)
2. Elise visited San Diego (Oct – 2008)
3. I got a “GEO-BAT” pad, 250 square feet of pure joy (Nov – 2008)
4. I got a new Bike, a purple Cannondale (Nov - 2008)
5. I went to Elise's for Xmas (Dec – 2008)
6. My stuff was moved down here (Feb - 2009)
7. I went to ASWE school (Feb/Mar – 2009)
8. My ship went into the yards (April - 2009)
9. I Bought myself a new bicycle (see above pic); I cracked the rear axel in my Cannondale (April - 2009)

I have also read the following books:

1. The Drunkards Walk, How Randomness rules our lives – Leonard Mlodinov
2. Aesop's Fables – Thomas James, George Townsend
3. Men Of Mathematics – E. T. Bell
4. On the Shoulders of Giants – Stephen Hawking
5. The Trouble with Physics – Lee Smolin
6. Welcome to The Monkey House – Kurt Vonnegut
7. Opticks – Newton
8. Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics – Timothy Ferris
9. A History and Philosophy of Fluid Mechanics – G. A. Tokaty
10. Being There – Jerzy Kosinski
11. Did You Say Mathematics? - Ya. Khurgin

Deployment. What can I say? I had good times, I had bad times. Where do I fit in with the wardroom? Meh. They are nice people, and I have enough of a professional report with them to work with them, but I have trouble imagining myself hanging out with them on weekends. I say that now, and my relationship with them will probably evolve as time passes.

As Repair Divisional Officer, I am in charge of three work centers, each with around 8 guys each. R-div is in charge of all the portable and installed damage equipment, CHT (plumbing) equipment, overboard discharges, and the general workshop which has a lathe, drill press, grinder, and an engraving shop. The general workshop contains both tools and knowledge that I need as a junior officer. Knowledge from my chief, DCA, and my men, and tools I can use for creating anything the ship needs.

I would have liked to have been present for the entire deployment. It is too bad that I got to my ship while it was half-way through its deployment. There was not enough time to get all the qualifications I needed, and some of the qualifications I can only get while underway. For example, I needed to be Combat Information Center Watch Officer (CICWO) qualified before I could go to Anti-Subsurface Warfare Evaluator (ASWE) school. It was quite a scramble to get me ASWE qualified before I went to that school. There are a couple more qualifications I still need in order to progress in ship life that I have been really lax in. I think it would have been perfect if I got to my ship while it was still in port just before the training cycle, and then got underway. I'll learn to live with the cards I am dealt.

So what have I accomplished? I graduated from college and got a well paying job. What have I learned? A LOT! I have learned the following:

1. Rules of the Road (which are how to drive a ship on water)
2. A preliminary understanding of the captains standing orders
3. Maintenance Materials Management (3M)
4. How to fight the ship as ASWE
5. A preliminary understanding of shipboard engineering
6. A better understanding of what is involved in Quantum Mechanics and General relativity
7. That it is really cool to ride my bike EVERYWHERE!!
8. How to manage my money better than I ever have before
9. How to play about three songs on the piano.

Not learning new things, not growing in some way is the most dangerous thing to a human. Humans invented a method to control fire, the ability of language, the ability of being able to write and read, a methodology of science, and all of the things that go with it! I am thankful to my ancestors for creating this. I too want to contribute in some small way to all of this. I need to develop some plan so I don't stagnate. One of the things that I hate about my own life is it seems as if I get comfortable in following a routine that is not always efficient. I loath stagnation in life more than anything. While I know it is impossible to do in my line of work, I hate the feeling of being somehow rushed in getting my PQS signed off or getting accomplishments complete. I have so far developed a layman's understanding of the operations of a ship, the engineering plant thereof, Electrical Engineering, and the laws that bind our great universe. Here is my plan for a general day:

0500 Wake up ready to tackle the next day, shower, shave, make breakfast
0615 Leave on bike for work
0700 Arrive and prepare for work
0800 While at work, devote two uninterrupted hours to each of the following:
1. General Operations of the ship I am on,
2. The Engineering plant I work with
1600 ~Get off work, ride home
1700 Arrive at home, cook dinner and food for next day
1800 Develop a working relationship with Quantum Mechanics
1900 Develop a working relationship with General Relativity
2000 Practice piano or read
2100 Get ready for and fall into bed, exhausted from the previous day.

This plan has all the aspects that I enjoy; it is robust, difficult, and involves self discipline. I will annotate all hours spent on each task throughout each day, and try to stick to this plan. We'll see where I am in one years time, and how well I stuck to this plan. I have most of the resources for this plan, and hopefully I can stick to it.

I will try to write whenever possible, and with any future accomplishments, problems or anything else I find interesting.

Ensigns Log: Stardate 41416.2, Coming Of Age

Boy oh boy, where to begin. I suppose I’ll begin my tales at the start of this adventure; the 15th of July. As you all know, I had been spending my time “Maxing and Relaxing,” at the Transient Personnel Unit in Naval Station San Diego. It seems like so long ago that I was at a point in my life where relaxing was all that I had to do. I left TPU on the 15th bound on a jet plane for Michigan, Amsterdam, and finally Doha, Qatar. That was a loooong flight; about 23 hours. I slept very little the two days I was heading over here. On my way over to Qatar, I met up with a couple more Navy personnel who were going to my ship. Four of them were enlisted personnel, while two of them were Ensigns just as young as I am. The Ensigns were both from the Academy, Ensign Beals and Ensign Ricks, while two of the four were Enlisted personnel had already been on ships before this one. We arrived at the ship, safe and sound, and exhausted from the trip.

After the jet lag had warn off, we met first with the XO of the ship. He is a big black man who always gets second portions of his meal, which is quite the contrast between the CO who is a tiny woman, and who always gets little portions. What also seems fascinating is the way the two of them view life and this ship. The CO sees the glass as 98% full, while the XO sees the glass as 98% empty. Not to say the XO is a down in the dumps type guy, but he does get on everybody’s tail about things an XO is supposed to. For example, ships general level of cleanliness, the food not being up to snuff, personnel on the ship getting out of line, people using I-pods while on watch, correcting men at half-mast, those sort of things. The captain on the other hand sees the ship as it can do no wrong. She is always full of life and excited to be here doing what she loves best; she is in command of the best Frigate in the Navy. She always is enthusiastic, saying things like, “Its great to be in the Navy!” and “Moboards are fun!” (More about moboards later)

For the first couple of days, I really had no job but to stand watch, and to observe all I could. Because the ship has 18 ensigns aboard, all the jobs had already been filled before we arrived. The CO had to be a little creative when she assigned these jobs to us. Ensign Beals was made “FSO” or Food Service Officer. When I ask him what he does all day, he throws his hands up in the air and says “NOTHING, but get yelled at.” Ensign Ricks was made Administration officer, which is pretty good. I wouldn’t like that job because I would feel as if I wasn’t really doing much to help fight the ship. I was then put in charge of the repair division aboard ship. That’s right, I was placed in engineering! Go figure. We own three different work centers, and all the damage control lockers aboard. There was already a division officer for R-Div, so I was put in charge of ER-09 Work center. That is a bag of worms that I could speak forever about!

ER-09 is all the DCPO’s from various divisions. Each six months, they turnover and get replaced by new DCPO’s. So, if you were a division officer, and you were requested to hand over one person from your division, would you choose the person who was at the top of the pile or at the bottom? I am in charge of the pirates and the derelicts aboard the ship. The first time we held “quarters” at 0800 inside of the ER09 cage it was horrible! Each of the men chose a place to sit down, pass around the 13 week report (basically like a work list), smoke and joke, listen to I-pods and generally waste time until 0900. That made me so sore! I quickly instigated a change, and now we have quarters outside of the cage where nobody has the chance to listen to I-pods. I have also made my work center supervisor create a worklist that is itemized and delegated to each man. I have more ideas of how to streamline ER09, but that beast is slow to change. I am sure in future blog entries, I’ll discuss the trials and tribulations ER-09 has proven to be.

It has been so busy around here that it seems to take forever to write anything on my blog. I’ll be sure to write more in the future, but the entries probably won’t be as long. In the future, I’ll make each entry about a specific thing. The next installment will cover the politics of me, and where I fit in with other ensigns aboard ship. Until then, fair winds and fair seas.


BTW: Oh ya, to day I found out that we have 96k distributed between around 100 personal computers. That means about 9.6K each of connectivity.

Ensigns log: Stardate 41209.2

I am currently at the Transient Personnel Unit (TPU), awaiting to go aboard my ship the FFG Curts. I wake up at around 0800, start the coffee brewing, take a shower, drink the coffee, and then at 0900 I sign a muster sheet saying I am here. Then I come back to my room in TPU, and relax while reading either the Division Officers Guide, or Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. That is pretty much all I do for the Navy. I have asked my sponsor aboard the FFG Curts if there is anything else I can do to better prepare myself for life aboard the Curts. He has given me explicit instructions to "enjoy culture," and that is what I have been doing.

The day I got here, I was walking back from the wetside Naval Exchange (NEX) when I noticed there was a female ensign who looked around my age who was following close behind me. I introduced myself to her and started a conversation. That evening I got invited out to go bowling with her and 5 other people from the Naval Academy and from other ROTC units. As my mother often says, I am an "ambassador of goodwill," thus I have no problem making new friends. Without any other tasking from the Navy, I am kind of the self appointed Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) officer. I research the things to do around here, and I generally try to find the most inexpensive things to do. Thus far I have gone to a movie, gone to Seaworld for free, swam in the beach, and gone to Dave and Busters with my newfound friends. In short, I have made some connections with a network of awesome people, and I am having a blast down here in San Diego.

The picture above is one I took of some flowers with my new camera. Apparently, it is illegal to take pictures on base without a permit. I asked the security guard here if it was alright if I took pictures of the different ships that were down here, but alas; no cameras are allowed on base. I'll need to get permission from my CO before I take any pictures of the ships that are on base. Until then, the pictures of the different ships I discuss are available on either the navy's main website: http://www.nvr.navy.mil/ Or you can just copy the ship name and use that as a search string in Google or Wikipedia to find lots of information about that ship.

The purpose of this log is to inform people of my adventures while I am in the Navy, as well as to act as kind of a journal that I can review in the future. I hope to make another log entry as soon as I can, in about two weeks. If you have any questions, please write them below in the comments section and I'll be sure to answer them. Until then this is Ensign Williams here, wishing you fine weather and fair seas.

Test Post # 1 - 4th of July

Hello World!

Test post #1. Young P.T. Dorner testing the new blog out. So a day in the life of Paul, here's me getting beat up by my cousins

OK, so it seems pretty easy so far mike, i go to the picture icon, upload this one and say small/med/large and then how i want it aligned and it uploads it.

picture test number two... gotta keep text texting until i get ot the botoom. today i went to my friends wedding and saw a bunch of high school people i havent seen in a long time. i also saw my old soccer coach and talked with him for a while. the weather here in portland has been hot.

picture 2:

not bad at all, draggy, droppy. i'm going to try and insert a movie next..