February 22, 2009

There are computers in the shop for internet and email but I use my laptop for music and movies. I even started writing a story so I use it for that too. I’ve been in the writing mood for a while but I couldn’t get any kind of inspiration for it, no light bulbs were going off. The ideas I did have I just didn’t like but finally one hit me and I really like it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The weather sounds ridiculous there, was chilly in HK and foggy too. Now its just back to the same old heat and its so humid too. I can’t stand it. I thought today was going to be bad for a while, I broke a drill bit, which isn’t a big deal. The important part is to find all of the pieces, stuff like that is no joke. I was working on a vehicle that moves planes around. I was packing my stuff up so I could go notify my supervisor and this guy comes up and says “I need this” so I told him that I was working on it and he didn’t listen. So when my supervisor came back with me and they had it moved and I hadn’t gotten all of the pieces yet. He told them that they can’t have it because we are missing a piece and it was a tiny piece too. They got this big magnet on wheels and they found the piece so it worked out. I was kind of worried about it for a minute but it ended up not being a big deal. Then I was working on something else and it was apparently missing a screw but the hole wasn’t lined up and then I ended up breaking a wire on it. So I took it off and there was another piece to take off and it had 4 tiny screws and everyone of them broke. I put a lot of hours in today but didn’t finish anything. But I ended up having a nice day, I’ve gotten close with a couple of people and they can always make me laugh so that makes things easier. Speaking of putting hours in, something that is important is corrosion prevention. The office keeps track of how many hours put toward jobs that involve that for each work center, there is a certain number they like to see. Last week they put out a sheet and my work center had 1 hour for the week so we got yelled at. Today they put out the list for the past week and my work center was leading with 40.5 hours. I was pretty excited about it, just because we knew they were keeping an eye on us. My supervisor looks at me and smiles and I knew what he was thinking but he says “you know, you pretty much did all of that.” So we kept joking about that and every time I would see someone go look at the paper I would yell and make a big deal out of my work center being at the top. I thought it was pretty funny.

We lost an hour of sleep last night and then I found out today that I have to be up at 0545 tomorrow to help out with a RAS. That’s the thing I told you about where we get fuel and other stuff. Yuck! I need to go to bed early tonight.

Well like I said, I’m tired and have to get up early so I am going to get off of here and get in bed.

February 21, 2009

Sorry that I didn’t write yesterday, we lost an hour of sleep last night so I was trying to get to bed as soon as possible. I’m back to work now so it’s the same old thing again. I think the food is getting worse lol. I don’t have much time right now Its almost time to start work but I just wanted to say hello.

February 16, 2009 - #2

I’m so excited. The idea of being in China still hasn’t set in yet. My passport didn’t make it so no Great Wall but I am going to try to go see the big Buddha statue they have, its at a monastery here. I found out that you can skate board on the great wall so I will definitely have to come back so I can do that. We are kind of working for a little while today so I am going to get off of here and wait until I can go walk on land again lol.

February 16, 2009

I’m in Hong Kong!

February 15, 2009

Sorry that it’s been a while, the past few days have been pretty bad. Today was much better though and I’m certain that things will be great after we start hitting ports. Yesterday evening I had a talk with someone who is an E-5 and he tries to look out for the lower guys like me. He was telling me that I was a really hard worker and that if I keep on stroking (that’s our term for working hard) the way I do and it will pay off. The bad part is that you just have to go through the b/s to get there everyone goes through it so it is what it is. It was nice to see that someone notices that I’m trying so that lifted my spirits a little bit. The food has been decent the past few days, I don’t know what the occasion is but I’m not complaining. Tell everyone I said hello.

February 6, 2009

I guess I wasn’t very clear about the game. I watched it live, the same time that everyone else in the states did. But it was February 2^nd. I didn’t have a February 1^st, this week has only been 6 days long. Get it? I’m a day ahead of you. The world doesn’t end tomorrow. Lol It was worth it watching it on a Monday though lol.

As far as weather goes, I will trade you. Its so humid and nasty in the hangar bay where most of my work is. Its hot in the shop but as soon as I walk into the hangar I am dripping with sweat. Today was pretty neat we got fuel from a big oil tanker and we got supplies from another ship. The ships were tied to mine and the fuel came over through hoses and helicopters brought the other stuff on. I took some pictures of the whole thing. It was very interesting.

Tell everyone that I said hello. Things are fine here, just work like I have said before. Nothing too interesting I can’t wait to see some land though.

I'm Back!!!! (February 5, 2009)

I told you not to be surprised if we lost internet on the boat. It’s been out for a week but everything is good. I’ve just been working, not much else is going on. I got to see the Super Bowl but not the commercials. It was also on Monday so that was weird and it was pretty early in the day when it aired. It has been really hot so I decided to just go back to my old haircut. Apparently there were 34,000 emails waiting to come through this morning (for the ship not just me!). I’m staying busy so things aren’t too bad. Tell everyone that things are great here. Its so uncomfortably hot here, I hate it. But the berthing is very cold so that makes up for it I suppose. I completed one of my qualifications, the hydraulic contamination one, so I am one step closer to being done with that. I’ve also picked up a few more licenses for different gear. I stay busy during the day but its normally just busy work because all of our stuff is RFI which means ready for inspection.

E-mail to Dyl

Dyl mentioned in one of his posts that the e-mail/internet would be down January 28th for a while. E-mails are being returned as undeliverable and indicate it will continue to attempt sending for two weeks. I can only suggest that you keep trying!!! Thanks!

January 27, 2009

It's pretty warm here. Getting to be uncomfortable I wish I was there for the snow though it looks like fun. I’m doing well.

January 25, 2009

It's not unusual for the internet and email to be down. From what I have been told, it will be down on the 28^th for a while so don’t worry.

Oh man, there are only a couple people here that listen to good music. It’s driving me crazy. So I listen to a lot of my own stuff every night to cleanse my brain. Lol I actually worked out yesterday, I ran two miles. I did better than I thought I would but its really, really hard to run on a treadmill while the ship is rocking.

January 23, 2009

Everyone is eating dinner and I have already eaten so I have a few free minutes before I need to start cleaning up. Its pretty much the same old stuff, different day here. I finally finished that school today so starting tomorrow I will be back in the shop full time. I’m pretty happy about that, I was getting tired of not being here. Everything is going well, I am still enjoying all of this. The ship has been pretty wild today. I almost felt sick from it, people were falling down and stuff was sliding around. It feels like you are in some weird gravity simulator, its either incredibly easy to walk or incredibly hard to. Its fun though, I feel like I am getting the full experience of this whole thing. I got some wild shots the other day. Another anthrax one and a smallpox vaccine. The smallpox one was insane, they poke you 15 times and it puts a live virus in your skin. Over the course of a month it is supposed to blister, fill with puss, scab, and fall off. Its supposed to itch really bad and if you touch it you can spread it to other parts of your body. Google it and check out some of the pictures, its pretty nasty. I am going to go so some other people can use the computer, we only have three in the shop so it’s a precious commodity. Tell everyone that I said hello.

January 19, 2009

My friend’s parents were in San Diego when we left and they videoed it so I am trying to get a hold of that so you can see it. I also have pictures. I’m back in school today. I’m pretty much getting into a routine. A few more adjustments to my schedule and I will have a solid one, but for the most part it’s the same stuff everyday so there’s not much to report, besides the same old stuff. The planes launching and landing is so loud, especially because I sleep under the flight deck. The planes are huge. Right now in the hangar there are big radar jamming planes and then jets and helicopters its pretty much full its definitely a neat sight. I’m going to see if I can take pictures. I’m also going to try to go up to the flight deck and watch some stuff if I get a chance. I’m on my lunch break right now and I need to go get fitted for a gas mask so I will have to cut this short I will probably email later as long as I’m not completely exhausted. I’ve been really stinking busy lately.

18 January 2009

Things are good here, just another day. But we get to watch football today so that is pretty exciting. I start my last week of school tomorrow, I’ll be very happy to get that over with, then I can spend all of my time working on getting qualified. I’m really glad we get to see the football games. I watched some UFC fights last night and Rich Franklin fought, he’s a Math teacher in Cincinnati so I was bragging about that to everyone. There isn’t much going on, like I said the same old stuff. I just wanted to say hello. Please tell everyone that I’m doing well.

Bremerton, WA - Leaving Port

(You can copy and paste the links below in your search engine or address bar to view the articles below.)

http://www.kitsapsun.com/videos/detail/uss-stennis-leaves-bremerton/

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/jan/12/stennis-sailors-prepare-for-seven-months-away/

The first one is a video the second is just an article, don’t pay attention to the 7 month thing. The video isn’t that great, I was disappointed because the Captain said that we had some good press when we left. It looks pretty amateur. Either way its kind of cool.

15 January 2009

Yesterday was a little slower than the first day, we just moved stuff around all day. My supervisor whom was also my sponsor did a evaluation on me yesterday and he said that from what he can see so far, I am well on my way to being pretty successful and that he thinks I’m a good worker. Asking questions and trying to learn. I thought that was good. I haven’t seen land in the past two days, that’s pretty interesting. The sun is so bright with nothing else around it, it was nice and warm too. I wanted to grab some pictures of the sunset yesterday but not even 20 minutes after that we moved into some heavy fog. All I could see was white, I could barely even see the water. Sleeping on the ship is great while it rocks. Walking during the day sometimes makes you feel drunk lol. That’s probably another reason sailors drink, because they get used to stumbling around on the ship and need to feel the same when they are on solid land haha. I’ll do some research lol.

I just got done with lunch, and I need to get back to work. Things are still great, I love it.

Day One

So I’m wrapping up my first day. It was very interesting, I like it. They are already asking me if I want to stay active or just go according to plan and do half and half. I said active at first but the way it was explained to me, I’m going to say no and just do what I signed to do. I did a lot of work today and learned a lot of things, there was even a fire. A small one but still. I only got to take one picture, its dark now so maybe I’ll have a better opportunity tomorrow. This is all I have for now.