Sunday, July 13, 2008

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..