Nothing much

I haven't posted in a couple days because I haven't had much to say. If you have ever seen the movie groundhog day, this place kind of reminds me of that. In ground hog day I think it is Bill Murray plays the same day over and over and over again. Well it's not quite that bad but it's getting there.

Lately I have been pretty good about running everyday. Micca sent me my new running shoes and a little adapter that plugs into my IPOD that tells me how far and how fast I'm running. When I get on theinternet it synchs up to a webpage and shows you a lot of statistics about your run. There are also challenges people put up, I'm currently in a challenge to see who runs the furthest in 15 days. I'm in second place right now we will see where i end up. You can also set a goal and I set mine for 60 miles in 30 days. I thought that should be pretty easy for me. My shortest run is about 2.6 and my last 3 runs have been about 3.75. It's a pretty cool toy and the different feedback provides some motivation to run that is sometimes hard for me to muster on my own. I have also decided that all of the food at the chow hall is going to make me fat so I figured I better start doing more. I started at 202 and I have gotten down to as low as 193 after a long run. I was obviously dehydrated but not that much.

So I understand that not everyone is totally famailiar with the Military in general. So I thought I would explain the difference between an Officer and enlisted soldier. It's probably easier to tell you what you have to do to become an officer. First I should specify that there are two types of Officers one is a Non commissioned officer often reffered to as an NCO and the other is a commissioned officer. I am now that latter and the way I went about it is the less conventional of the 2 methods. The primary defining qualification is that all officers have college degrees, that isn't to say that some NCO's don't have degrees too. That was the case with me. I was on my way to earning my degree and applied for officer candidate school (OCS), upon completion of that program along with my degree I became a commissoned officer. Prior to OCS I was a non commissoned officer. I was a Sergeant First Class (SFC). I wa by no means the norm. Most SFCsdon't go to OCS because they have established themselves as a fairly high ranking NCO. I t would have only been possible for me to get promoted twice more as an enlisted soldier. Enlisted meaning not a commissoned officer. Enlisted means you basically walk into the recruiting station and say sign me up. If you pass the test and the physical then you go to basic training and your specialized training. All services work under the same basic principal. Ahhh I forget the other method of becoming an officer. There are colleges that have programs called Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) thes college students go above and beyond the normal college student and attend military classes and spend extra time on weekeneds and the summer partici[ating in military type stuff. Upon thier graduation they become officers.

I could have explained that a lot better, I hope I don't leave you to confused please feel free to post questions and Ican clairify.

I used plenty of acronyms today so no need to post any more.

Later

Brent