So I've been running through as many ideas as I could think of for my final BEDApril blog, I can't seem to think of one that would be sufficient. I thought, "Talk about cooking, you enjoy that." or, "More about the tandem stories.", "BEDApril as a whole experience?", "Still no, what about ANYTHING ELSE?". Well I couldn't figure any one of those would be enough seeing as this is the last BEDApril 2010 blog I'm going to post, so I'll try to touch on all bases that I get to.
First subject was cooking, I've wanted to talk about it for a while now. I love food, the taste, the smell, the look, food is pleasing to the senses. I love it when people cook me food, or I go out and get something made by some mystery chef hiding in a kitchen that I've never seen. Seeing as I'm the youngest of five and I have an older brother that went to a culinary arts school I didn't grow up cooking very often. When Nate, said brother, moved out cooking fell on my mom or my dad almost always, so when my mom worked it was either a stew or out to eat. Don't get me wrong, my dad cooks a good stew, but I love diversity, I like having something different all the time, so it's easy to see that I would grow tired of my dad's stews. I decided that I would take on a few meals here and there. I started cooking basic stuff (I haven't gotten that much more complex with my cooking) and I started loving it. I don't know why, if it's that my food just tastes better, or if it's that things taste better when I know I've put an effort into it, but my god it was delicious. I just love making something and eating it. So yeah.... that's my section on cooking.
Next was the tandem stories. Now I don't really have all that much to talk about with the tandem stories, though I may want to continue my story out some other time. The other thing I wanted to talk about with tandem stories a little was my thought process for them. My story I was sitting there trying to come up with a good opening to my story, because I try to make the beginning and the end as good as I can. I figured out the whole "Life isn't fair, but you don't have to be alive to be screwed over." line and went from there. Marlon's story was as follows, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! GAH! I'll come back to it in ten minutes." Ten minutes later, "I STILL DON'T GET IT! I'll do it when I come home." I come home, "Ok, this will do." For Danielle's it felt a little natural for me, no major struggle there. Dave's took a bit for me to figure out where I was going but once I settled on the loss of friendship I wrote it out fairly simply. As for my final paragraph I just needed to find a way for my main character to end up screwed over and progress it five years, so I did. Last thing about tandem stories, MARLON FINISH YOURS!
BEDApril as a whole was enjoyable, I have a few blogs of significant size, I only missed one day, I did the tandem stories. I call BEDApril 2010 a success and I look forward to BEDAugust 2010 (BEDAutumn anyone?).
That's about all I have to write about, I feel that suffices. I most likely won't be seeing you tomorrow, unless I have the compulsion to blog out of habit that I have formed. Take care Bloggosphere and I look forward to our next meeting.
Successfully (well, mostly),
The Mandog
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
For the Creditz
Gunna go hang out. This is a cop out. Hopefully my final BEDApril blog will own hardcore, but I doubt it.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Twenty-Eight Days Later
Well, now that I have recapped of my Tehas trip I don't have as much to blog about. I do have some advice for anyone that may be going on a plane somewhere. Make sure if you are congested you take something for it before your flight. Normally when you go through a change in pressure, from flying or diving, your middle ear, or Eustachian Tube, will open or close to equalize the pressure in your ears to your surroundings. Apparently if you happen to be congested, as I was on Sunday, it will hamper this process causing your ear to act up. In most cases, such as mine, you will have mild temporary hearing loss and slight sensation of numbness, this usually clears up in a day or so, though I am still partially feeling the effects. This whole barotrauma, what it's called when you have something wrong with your ear from pressure, is really annoying. Last night I felt like I had something over my ear preventing me from earing out of it very well. Today it's been doing much better but there is still a small amount of numbness. So yeah, if you fly take decongestants if you have to.
Also, I got to talk to Chris today, even though his base has bad reception and our call kept getting dropped, it was nice. See you tomorrow for the penultimate post of BEDApril 2010.
Future Participant in BEDAugust,
Mandog
Also, I got to talk to Chris today, even though his base has bad reception and our call kept getting dropped, it was nice. See you tomorrow for the penultimate post of BEDApril 2010.
Future Participant in BEDAugust,
Mandog
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
My Time in Tehas
Ok, I've been promising a real post since Wednesday and I haven't given you one until now. I've been pretty busy this last week and now I have time to do this.
Wednesday I went off to San Antonio flying on a plane for the first time that I'm able to remember (because the last time I was on a plane I was too young to form cognitive memories). You may be asking yourself, "Why did you go to San Antonio when you live in the best state in existence?" Well, you probably aren't asking that since anyone reading this already knows, but still, it's my transition tool. I went to San Antonio Tehas because my brother which I am really close to was graduating from Airforce Basic Military Training. When I got in on Wednesday my sister-in-law couldn't find her driver's license, so we spent a long time at Hertz trying to get something worked out. They let me be the driver and then use Erin's credit card (which is a HUGE exception for some reason). Once we finally got that sorted we went to the hotel and called it a night.
Thursday we woke up really early (which will be a theme for the week-end). After breakfast we left to go to Lackland Airforce Base barely getting there in time to see the Airman Run. The Airman Run is the last time they have to run since they're going to be graduating the next day. After watching the run we make our way into the auditorium to go through briefing to know what Chris can and can't do, all of which was covered on the website so it was fairly useless. Once we finish up there we move outside to watch the Coin Ceremony/Retreat. The Coin Ceremony is where the graduates are handed their Airman coin which is a symbol of something or rather. Then we all make our way back into the auditorium to watch the honors ceremony. Chris graduated with honors and barely missed getting his marksmen ribbon by three shots, he needed 43/50 he got 40/50. Once the honors ceremony was finished we were free to do whatever we wanted on base until 8, when the airmen had to be back at their dorms. You know how I said we got up early? Well from waking up to the end of the honors ceremony was finished by 12:30. Most of Thursday turned into Chris having to wait in line to get his stripes sown onto his uniforms, he's an E3 or Airman First Class so he had a two stripe emblem per uniform. The day ended with a game of bowling, I got a 73 which considering I had 15 in frame 5 isn't that bad, and then dinner at Cracker Barrel.
Friday we met up with Uncle Tim and Nate and Jamie for the Graduation Parade, of course we all woke up at 6 or earlier. Watching them march hurt me because majority of the airmen never marched before BMT and in 8 1/2 weeks they were marching better than some of my Seniors when I was Low Brass Section Leader in high school. The parade was nice but not much to talk about. From there most of us walked to Chris' dorm area to get a tour of where he was living while the rest took the shuttles back to move cars. The dorms were exactly what you would expect from military living arrangements, fairly confined and unremarkable. From there Mom, Nate, Jamie and I went to pick up the last few cars and then we picked up Erin, Cameron, Rey, Beth and Dad and met Uncle Tim and Chris for lunch (Chris and Uncle Tim went to the Base Exchange so Chris can get his DSi XL and Pokémon Soul Silver). Once we finished lunch we went to the Alamo. Now I know a few of you may have driven in LA, or know what traffic is like there, but this was so much worse. Downtown San Antonio traffic is probably just like LA traffic, but while we were down there Fiesta was going on. I'm not sure what is being celebrated during Fiesta, but what I do know is that there were a ton of people, a lot of cars, and quite a few blocked off streets. Driving to find a decent parking lot was horrible. We finally get into an area that has parking and we walk a very short distance to the Alamo. The Alamo was nice, it was cool to see everything they had there. We then walked to the River Walk, which is just a river with shops and restaurants around it. At this point we realize that we have very little time before Chris has to be back on base so we quickly find our way to a steakhouse and try to eat as quick as possible. Erin, Chris, Cameron and I run off as soon as we finish so we don't have to wait for anyone. After navigating our way out, which wasn't as bad because some streets were opened back up, we make it in time to drop Chris off by five minutes.
Saturday was a little bit more relaxed of a morning. I wake up at 8-8:30 to go pick up Chris, since there's nothing we need to do on base I go by myself. I end up having to wait over half an hour for his flight to be let out because they had to take pictures which took forever. We make it back to the hotel and get moving on our day. Most of the day was spent at the San Antonio Zoo. We only saw about 1/3 - 1/2 of the zoo because we went really slow through the first few areas. I tried taking as many photos as I could but our batteries died, so I only got some of the first few areas, but I did take plenty of photos, I might put them up on Facebook. From the zoo we just went back to the hotel so Chris could get some time to relax. While Chris was taking what turned out to be a really long shower Mom and I went to pick up dinner. We went to KFC since it would be easy to just pick up food for everyone there. Once we made it to KFC we noticed that it was a combination Taco Bell and KFC (see previous blog). After we got back and Chris ate I ran him back to the base and we called it a day.
Sunday was another day in which we didn't wake up really early, 7:30 for me. Around nine we went to the base for church and then went to the BX so Chris can pick up luggage. After spending over an hour and a half at the BX we go to breakfast at IHOP then head back to the hotel because Chris had to be back by 5:30 that day, also Erin, Cameron and I were leaving for the airport at 4. After relaxing for a little while we start packing up and we say good-bye to Chris and the rest of my family. We get to Hertz and out of the two hours they told us to allot for returning the car we use maybe ten minutes. Everything took a lot less time at the airport then we thought so we're passed the security check two hours before our flight leaves. We decided to get something to eat, we saw this little microbrewery place so we stopped there. I ordered brisket tacos and an Alamo Golden Ale. The brisket tacos were delicious, but it was just two slices of brisket and a tortilla per taco, two tacos. Our flight takes of a little late but we make it back to LA on time. We get home and I just zone out on the internet before going to bed.
Yesterday I just felt like hanging out, so I went to AVC and spent most of the day with Jimmy. After improv I realized that I needed to blog and my friend offered to let me use his iPhone, so I throw a tiny blog out for credit and promise myself that I would blog this today. Promise fulfilled.
Today was spend feeling sick, Beth coming home at about 3 in the morning (she flew back because she has a choir thing, while my parents, Rey and Alice are spending time with my grandparents) and hating that I'm feeling sick. Seriously, my immune system was handling it's shit up until now. While everyone else was catching some cold that was going around I was healthy and feeling great. Now I feel pretty crappy and I can barely hear out of my left ear.
I hope this blog makes up for a week of bare minimum posting. There's a possibility that I'll go into BEDAugust with Myer, Admiral and possibly Marlon, but we'll see. I'll see you guys tomorrow with a blog that will be much shorter than this one.
Wednesday I went off to San Antonio flying on a plane for the first time that I'm able to remember (because the last time I was on a plane I was too young to form cognitive memories). You may be asking yourself, "Why did you go to San Antonio when you live in the best state in existence?" Well, you probably aren't asking that since anyone reading this already knows, but still, it's my transition tool. I went to San Antonio Tehas because my brother which I am really close to was graduating from Airforce Basic Military Training. When I got in on Wednesday my sister-in-law couldn't find her driver's license, so we spent a long time at Hertz trying to get something worked out. They let me be the driver and then use Erin's credit card (which is a HUGE exception for some reason). Once we finally got that sorted we went to the hotel and called it a night.
Thursday we woke up really early (which will be a theme for the week-end). After breakfast we left to go to Lackland Airforce Base barely getting there in time to see the Airman Run. The Airman Run is the last time they have to run since they're going to be graduating the next day. After watching the run we make our way into the auditorium to go through briefing to know what Chris can and can't do, all of which was covered on the website so it was fairly useless. Once we finish up there we move outside to watch the Coin Ceremony/Retreat. The Coin Ceremony is where the graduates are handed their Airman coin which is a symbol of something or rather. Then we all make our way back into the auditorium to watch the honors ceremony. Chris graduated with honors and barely missed getting his marksmen ribbon by three shots, he needed 43/50 he got 40/50. Once the honors ceremony was finished we were free to do whatever we wanted on base until 8, when the airmen had to be back at their dorms. You know how I said we got up early? Well from waking up to the end of the honors ceremony was finished by 12:30. Most of Thursday turned into Chris having to wait in line to get his stripes sown onto his uniforms, he's an E3 or Airman First Class so he had a two stripe emblem per uniform. The day ended with a game of bowling, I got a 73 which considering I had 15 in frame 5 isn't that bad, and then dinner at Cracker Barrel.
Friday we met up with Uncle Tim and Nate and Jamie for the Graduation Parade, of course we all woke up at 6 or earlier. Watching them march hurt me because majority of the airmen never marched before BMT and in 8 1/2 weeks they were marching better than some of my Seniors when I was Low Brass Section Leader in high school. The parade was nice but not much to talk about. From there most of us walked to Chris' dorm area to get a tour of where he was living while the rest took the shuttles back to move cars. The dorms were exactly what you would expect from military living arrangements, fairly confined and unremarkable. From there Mom, Nate, Jamie and I went to pick up the last few cars and then we picked up Erin, Cameron, Rey, Beth and Dad and met Uncle Tim and Chris for lunch (Chris and Uncle Tim went to the Base Exchange so Chris can get his DSi XL and Pokémon Soul Silver). Once we finished lunch we went to the Alamo. Now I know a few of you may have driven in LA, or know what traffic is like there, but this was so much worse. Downtown San Antonio traffic is probably just like LA traffic, but while we were down there Fiesta was going on. I'm not sure what is being celebrated during Fiesta, but what I do know is that there were a ton of people, a lot of cars, and quite a few blocked off streets. Driving to find a decent parking lot was horrible. We finally get into an area that has parking and we walk a very short distance to the Alamo. The Alamo was nice, it was cool to see everything they had there. We then walked to the River Walk, which is just a river with shops and restaurants around it. At this point we realize that we have very little time before Chris has to be back on base so we quickly find our way to a steakhouse and try to eat as quick as possible. Erin, Chris, Cameron and I run off as soon as we finish so we don't have to wait for anyone. After navigating our way out, which wasn't as bad because some streets were opened back up, we make it in time to drop Chris off by five minutes.
Saturday was a little bit more relaxed of a morning. I wake up at 8-8:30 to go pick up Chris, since there's nothing we need to do on base I go by myself. I end up having to wait over half an hour for his flight to be let out because they had to take pictures which took forever. We make it back to the hotel and get moving on our day. Most of the day was spent at the San Antonio Zoo. We only saw about 1/3 - 1/2 of the zoo because we went really slow through the first few areas. I tried taking as many photos as I could but our batteries died, so I only got some of the first few areas, but I did take plenty of photos, I might put them up on Facebook. From the zoo we just went back to the hotel so Chris could get some time to relax. While Chris was taking what turned out to be a really long shower Mom and I went to pick up dinner. We went to KFC since it would be easy to just pick up food for everyone there. Once we made it to KFC we noticed that it was a combination Taco Bell and KFC (see previous blog). After we got back and Chris ate I ran him back to the base and we called it a day.
Sunday was another day in which we didn't wake up really early, 7:30 for me. Around nine we went to the base for church and then went to the BX so Chris can pick up luggage. After spending over an hour and a half at the BX we go to breakfast at IHOP then head back to the hotel because Chris had to be back by 5:30 that day, also Erin, Cameron and I were leaving for the airport at 4. After relaxing for a little while we start packing up and we say good-bye to Chris and the rest of my family. We get to Hertz and out of the two hours they told us to allot for returning the car we use maybe ten minutes. Everything took a lot less time at the airport then we thought so we're passed the security check two hours before our flight leaves. We decided to get something to eat, we saw this little microbrewery place so we stopped there. I ordered brisket tacos and an Alamo Golden Ale. The brisket tacos were delicious, but it was just two slices of brisket and a tortilla per taco, two tacos. Our flight takes of a little late but we make it back to LA on time. We get home and I just zone out on the internet before going to bed.
Yesterday I just felt like hanging out, so I went to AVC and spent most of the day with Jimmy. After improv I realized that I needed to blog and my friend offered to let me use his iPhone, so I throw a tiny blog out for credit and promise myself that I would blog this today. Promise fulfilled.
Today was spend feeling sick, Beth coming home at about 3 in the morning (she flew back because she has a choir thing, while my parents, Rey and Alice are spending time with my grandparents) and hating that I'm feeling sick. Seriously, my immune system was handling it's shit up until now. While everyone else was catching some cold that was going around I was healthy and feeling great. Now I feel pretty crappy and I can barely hear out of my left ear.
I hope this blog makes up for a week of bare minimum posting. There's a possibility that I'll go into BEDAugust with Myer, Admiral and possibly Marlon, but we'll see. I'll see you guys tomorrow with a blog that will be much shorter than this one.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Very Little Time
I have to finish packing. I'm going to get lunch for everyone soon. Two hours until leaving for flight. Blogging for the day. Might post again later tonight.
Hastily,
Mandog
Hastily,
Mandog
Saturday, April 24, 2010
I'm at the Taco-Bell. I'm at the KFC
So I'm probably not going to blog all that much today, because it's ten-thirty and I'm a little tired right now. Regarding my title my mom and I went to go pick up dinner from a KFC that we've passed at least four times these last few days (more for me because I've picked up and dropped off Chris alone today). We pull up to the Taco-Bell and I realize that it's a combination Taco-Bell and KFC. So in my head I've been singing "I'm at the Taco-Bell, I'm at the KFC, I'm at the combination Taco-Bell and KFC." We went to the zoo today, a lot of pictures early on, then batteries started to die. As for right now I'm watching the game and I'm not happy. I'll talk to you tomorrow, probably early since I don't know what I'm going to do after I get back to LA.
From Tehas,
Mandog
From Tehas,
Mandog
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