Fed-up Fridays

Okay I thought about making a Thankful Thursday post, but I was too late this week. So I decided to start my own tradition instead. On "Fed-up Fridays", I will list all of the little things that annoy the living heck out of me. So here goes:

1. Contests under the lid of a 20 oz soda bottle. It used to be, that you could find out if you won right away, and then simply take the cap to the store to claim your prize. But now you have to go online and type in the code, after providing your email address. Only one in five wins a free Pepsi, but everyone gets to enjoy the junk mail from the soda company that will be clogging their inboxes for all eternity.

2. People who park SUVs in compact car spots. This may be a result of illiteracy, and I can sympathize with that- after all, not every one can be a super-duper speed reader. For this reason, I propose that instead of writing the word "Compact" in the spot, they should illustrate the meaning, by painting something like this:


3. Pennies. Or what I like to call, "Satan's Sales Tax". Most of the time I throw them in the trash. But every now and then I feel too guilty to waste the money, even if it is stupid pennies. So I put them in a jar, vowing to take them to bank one day, while in actuality, I save them for a few weeks untill the guilt fades, and THEN I throw them away- along with the jar.

(My current penny jar. It made me happier back when it still had pickles in it.)

4. Taking out the trash- A job intended for a man, but for lack of one I must perform the task myself. I hate it when the bag bumps against my legs and it feels kind-of wet. I know what kind of nasty things I put in there, and there is a reason I put them in the trash and not on my legs. On a related note however, there's this Navy chief who lives in the same neighborhood as me. I knew him from DLI. He was the guy that decided which language you got to be put in. I used to be quite afraid of him. But the other day I encountered him at the dumpster, and he asked me to help him throw away his toilet. It's interesting, how much more human someone seems once you have seen their toilet, particularly if you have helped them carry it.

Well, that's all I can think of for today. Stay tuned for "Wishful Wednesday", which is where I list all the things I don't have, but want, and also "Masochistic Mondays", which is where I list all of the things I hate about myself.

(My apologies to the creators of "Thankful Thursdays"- this is just a parody, no harm intended.)

Another quick story

I was printing something out today, and I kept getting paper jams for some reason. I finally managed to pull all the excess paper out, but my printer was still making an odd crunching noise. Finally I got it to print something, and when it did, look what popped out with it!! I didn't have a paper jam, I had a cockroach jam! It was so disgusting!

What I've been up to lately

(Warning: this post has been edited for purposes of national security.)

I've been back to work now that my Chinese class is done. I was a little bummed at first, but I've gotten used to it again. Last set I had to _______ and this time I __________ which is always a bit of a thrill. The first minute or so is always nerve wracking, my hands start shaking and I can't hardly type, but then once _____________, it just feels really freakin' good. It's really one of the most satisfying parts of my job.

I also had to ________________ last night, for hours and hours on end, which ended up being cool because they let me go home early- which doesn't happen often, but is always a pleasant surprise.

Today I went to the beach with some of my work friends. I wish I had brought my camera, the beach was really nice today. The water was a beautiful blue green and the waves were the perfect size. There were two large ships anchored off in the distance, which added to the ambiance. It was really fun.

Chinese class, in English this time

Okay, so I was just kidding about that post about my Chinese class. Now I will post about my language training experience in English.

I got put into an advanced class, which is not necessarily appropriate to my level. I could have requested to be put in the intermediate class instead, but I have found in the past that that I learn more in a class that is difficult for me than I do in a class that I can skate through, and thus I stuck with it. I was definitely the worst in the class, and it was a little hard on my ego to suffer through that, but as I predicted, the results were worth it.

Recently the military decided to make the annual language test considerably more difficult, without providing supplementary training to help everyone pass it. Fun, fun. My score on the old test, was a listening 3, reading 3. Which is pretty much as good as you can do. (Passing is a 2/2). But when I took the new test for the first time, I scored a 1+/2+. Which is the same as saying "failing miserably". But after this class I took the test and got a 2+/2+. Which means I did "really freakin' good". I am pleased, to say the least. It's also good news for me financially, because I still get a good amount of language pay, and I just started getting paid for E-5 this month, so overall I am coming out ahead. Since I will be unemployed in 7 months or so, the more money I can save now the better.

Another cool thing happened in class. We had to give a presentation in Chinese (using powerpoint) on the topic of our choice relating to China. I knew that my speaking would be lousy compared to other people's so I plotted a way to make up for that. I illustrated my presentation, by drawing humorous pictures in Paint. I got a really good response. Everyone laughed a lot, and as it turns out, my strategy worked perfectly. My presentation was not the best, grammatically speaking, but it was still one of the most memorable. I am so pleased that I was able to employ my artistic skills and my quirky sense of humor to help me do well on my project.

Overall the class was really fun, and I was actually bummed to have to go back to work. On the positive side, I'm now really excited about the prospect of attending college when I get out. When I graduated high school I was so sick of academics, I couldn't stand the thought of it, but now I think I could really get into studying again.

One last interesting thing happened. Because I was the only E-5, I ended up being the class leader, which was initially intimidating, but ended up being really fun actually. It was fun to be in charge of a bunch of E-4's and E-3's. Although the people in my class were all so responsible already that I never really had to use my authority. (Thankfully.)

Well, anyways here is a collection of some of the goofy drawings I used for my presentation. I can really actually draw better than this, but nonetheless people in my class were very complimentary, which once again, pleased me to say the least.