Remediation

King of Procrastination

I pretty much procrastinate at everything I do. The one thing I currently procrastinate at is at my job when I have to write my Fitness Reports. A Fitness Report is an evaluation we do on Marines from the rank of Sergeant on up. These reports talk about the Marine and their performance for a period not greater than a year in time. I think I procrastinate because it is not an easy thing to write, first you grade them on a bunch of leadership traits and then you write a section on what they have accomplished during that period or why they suck. These reports are very important and crucial to the promotion process, so basically you are writing their future.

I usually am pretty good about starting them, then I will usually go back and re read them and evaluate them a couple days later so I can take a fresh look at them. Then I mull over them for several days wondering if I evaluated them correctly. It also gets tricky because I have to keep a log of how I graded each Marine and basically the Marines of the same rank are graded against each other. So I am usually waiting until the last minute to submit them because I take so much time contemplating if I have done it right.

I try my best every time I have more to do to get better, I write a time line and try to stick to it. It never fails though, I am still waiting to the last minute. Maybe one day I will figure it out.

 

Fair winds and following seas.

James is in the pirate hat on the right.

0110 am, Sunday February 25^th, 2018. I stand in the hallway of Scripps urgent care hospital in La Jolla, California with 39 other Marine Officer all in our dress uniform. There we wait for our dear friend James to come down from his ICU room with his family. We share some of our favorite memories of James and prepare to escort him to surgery for his organs to be harvested. This will be our last time to see him, emotions are high. Elevator doors open, James is rolled out on the medical bed with all of the machines hooked up that have been keeping him alive for the past few days. Surrounded by his family, friends and the medical staff who tried to save his life. The hall way is quite, except for the sounds of sniffles and crying. His mother is clinching his hand as she walks beside him knowing these will be the last moments with him. The Captain calls us to attention then forward, March. 20 Marine Officers marching two wide and ten deep lead James down the hallway, behind James and his family 20 more. We march real slow, I have so many emotions running through me, but my mind tells me to be strong, I do everything in me to keep my bearing. We march down two hallways then we pass where there are other friends waiting in a waiting room, I know my wife is there, stay strong. We make a couple more turns down another hallway, now the other friends that were waiting in the room are behind our formation following. All you hear is a soft cadence calling, left, right, left, right and the sounds of sniffles. James approaches the doors to the surgery room. Detail, Halt. We all come to a stop. The Marines that were in the lead are given the command to about face. They all turn around sharply at the same time. I am now looking past James at another Marine Officer. We are all at the position of attention. This was the hardest thing I have had to do in my life. We stand there and watch as his family cries out. They say their last goodbyes one by one, hugging him, telling them how much they love him, and just cry. It took everything I had to stay strong and not break. I also wanted to hug him, he was a dear friend of mine. But I know, we do this for him and his family. Finally they wheel him in past the doors and that is the last time I ever saw my friend James. We are given the command to fall out, we wait as the family files out to another waiting room where we all met. The Chaplin is there, she gives a prayer and then we all take the time to give our condolences to the family. I comfort my wife as she comforts me back. This was not an easy thing to do, or even write about, but it is something I will never forget. I miss you buddy, until we meet again.

500 + words on the potential of having a child.

So I have been married now for almost seven years. My wife and I have recently decided to try and have kids. It has been a decision that has been hard to reach since we have been enjoying life just the two of us. During our recent vacation she took a pregnancy test and it was positive. I was in shock, I was very happy but in a lot of shock. All day I would just say randomly, oh shit. Oh Shit. Not that I was necessarily scared, just didn’t believe it was actually happening. I mean I am 33 year old, have a steady job, and also a strong marriage, so why should I be scared? Well, luckily even though we were both very excited, we did not tell any family. A few days later she could tell something was wrong. She went to the doctor and found out that she was no longer pregnant. We both understand that this is not uncommon and although it was disappointing we are not giving up. I am getting ready to deploy for six months again, so we don’t have much time, but hopefully it will work out. If not, I am confident something will work out eventually if it is meant to be. While it has been a great time being kid free, I do hope to be a father in the future.

I think some of the hesitation is being in the military. I mean I am getting ready to go on my sixth, 6^th month deployment. It is hard enough leaving my wife and animals, I cannot imagine having to leave children as well. I have seen friends go through it and it does not seem fun. At this point in my career I know this could potentially be my last deployment, o I think the timing is finally right. I want to be able to help my wife raise our child and also I know I am at a point in my life that we can provide a good upbringing and childhood.

I did not grow up well off, in fact we were closer to a lower income family than middle class. My parents did what they could and I remember having a happy time as a child, but I also we did not do as much as I remember my friends doing such as vacations and stuff. I do think I would be a good father, but I guess you always wonder if you actually will be a good father.

I look at my dad for example. When I was a child he was not the best or even around very much. He had a drug and alcohol addiction, so my mother raised us three kids by herself for the most part. My older brother still lives at home, does not work and is obese. I am doing alright for myself and my younger sister is a school teacher, married with two kids, and her family is doing great. So 2 out of 3 for my mom and dad. When my dad remarried, my step mother was also an alcoholic. She had two kids of her own and then they had had a kid together. While my dad raised all three of those kids with her, they have been slow to leave the nest. Aging between 22 and 29, all three of the kids live at home with my father and step mom still. Also the step brother has his wife and two kids staying there also.

So looking at my own family, it seems risky to have kids. I can’t imagine having kids past college age living with me. I guess that is one of the risks you take. I would do anything for my family, but if we are able to have kids, I hope they move out and start their own lives at an appropriate age!

Sorry if this post offends anyone that was not the intent, just putting out my thoughts and feelings of children. Lastly, wish me luck!

Compilation Dragon by J.O.B.

There once was a very lonely dragon who lived all alone in her tower now that the princess was married to her prince. The young dragon tried to stay out of the nearby town because she scared many of the towns people. One day the dragon got a hangnail and went to town to find help. Unfortunately, the people of the town thought she was coming to eat them all.

There it was again, digging into her skin, the dragon’s mother told her not to pull hangnails and to wait to cut them off. The dragon thought to herself, What harm could it really do? The dragon tried to pull it, but stopped after immense pain.  Hopelessly, she watched the blood burst from her right hind leg and slowly drip to the floor.

With a great sigh, she thought of the last time this had happened. The time when she had tried to get help. She knew the woodworker could fix the problem as she had seen his tools the night his dog had gone missing. He had threateningly waved them over his head, sure that she had eaten the Labrador, but she had not. Years earlier she had made a meager meal of his wife’s chow, but that was before she had realized what horrifically hairy meals dogs made. People and pigs were much preferred to dog, but the woodworker hadn’t known any of this. Tools raised he had shouted at her for minutes before he caught himself and remembered that she could eat him just as easily as she could eat a dog. She had raised her hind leg to him so he could see the pain and distress she was in but it only upset him more and in the end he joined his family in their basement. This made her sad and angry, she sat there thinking, how will she get his attention? Maybe she could breathe fire on his house to get him to come out. Would he help her then? Whatever will she do?

No, this time she would have to find a new way to show him the nail that grew askew. The act of pulling it out had become too painful. Her teeth were not designed to aid in pulling but rather for piercing. Every few years, when her nail grew out of control and dug into her skin she would bite at the nail until it fractured and splintered. Eventually the pieces would fall out and a new nail would grow in its place but it took time and often got infected. Tears in her eyes, she reluctantly returned to the woodworkers house. She looked in the basement window, hoping the woodworker would feel sorry for her. She shrieked a dragon yell! As for this pain, hurt like hell! Still nothing from the woodworker, so she thought some more. She now lay on her side, showing the nail in her foot towards the window.

At last, the woodworker now could see what was wrong. His family begged him not to, but he could feel her pain. Against their wishes and pleas, he stepped outside to help the dragon. He approached with caution, carrying his tools to pull the nail. Once he stepped near the dragon stayed still, as he pulled on the nail, she let out a yell! Oh poor dragon he said, it will be okay, I will have this out in no time. He pulled once more, and this time it came loose, she let out a yell again. This time she had tears of joy. The dragon was so happy and thankful that the woodworker had helper her, she decided to asked him if there was any way she could repay the favor and make up for scaring his family. The woodworker replied that he was not use to seeing such a nice dragon.

The woodworker invited the dragon to dinner at his house with his family. Although they had to eat outside in order for her to fit, the family and the dragon shared many stories and realized they were not so different after all. The woodworker asked the dragon “Am I still entitled to a favor?” The dragon replied “Of course!” The woodworker said “We would like you to come over every week like this and help me chop down some trees. Afterwards, we can all enjoy dinner.” The dragon was very happy to help and have some new friends to meet with every week.

The End

Story by J.O.B. (Joel, Oliver & Bianca)

Not a good day.

As I sit here this morning, I regret not listening to Emerson’s advice on knock out your blog post early in the week. In my mind though, I knew I had Thursday off and figured that would be a good time to catch up on some school work. Had I done this earlier in the week maybe I would have written on something more light and heart felt, but I only have one thing on my mind right now and I need to write about it.

It was about 7 pm last night when my wife called me and asked if I heard about anything happening to our friend who works with me. I will call him Larry just to protect his name. Not that any of you would know him, but also I can’t go into too many details because the nature of my job and the current situation. I told my wife I had not heard anything but I knew he was supposed to be flying tonight. If you all remember I am a Marine who works with helicopters currently. Anyways, I started texting and calling people to try and see what happened. I finally got the story of what happened and I was just at a loss of words. Without going into detail, I can tell you that he had an accident involving a helicopter while it was on the ground, he had to be taken to an intensive care unit right away and his status was not good. It was hard to try and tell my wife what had happened because I just could not believe it. Then I was up most of the night talking with friend trying to get updates on his status. Here it is 7 am and still no update. We all have to go into work at 9 am for a formation, after being in for 15 years, I know this formation is to officially get the word out to everyone on what happened. Hopefully we will get an update on the status of my friend. Hopefully it will be good news, but honestly I do not have a lot of hope right now.

I am hoping I have not lost another friend, a brother in arms. At the same time I have been wondering recently, how dangerous is my job compared to others that are not in the military. I have a brother who is a cop and a sister who is a teacher. For my brother and I, we at least know that we will have adherent risks in our job. As for my sister who teaches the 3^rd grade, she did not start her job thinking that she would have a risk of being in danger while at work. That is where we are at in America today though, I feel like if I am not currently in a combat zone, that my sister the school teacher might have a more dangerous job. That just makes me sick, I know I have switched gears a lot, but that is where my mind wanders to when I think of the horrible accidents I have seen in my line of work.

I am sorry for the depressing post, hopefully I will be able to reply with some good news here in the near future.

Mini-Analysis

                The first article is from CNN and it talks about the ban on transgender people serving in the military. The article was written by CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue. The writer is focused on an audience who is sympathetic to the transgender community. Her main focus is to point out how unethical and unfair to human rights the decision is. She talks about how a judge blocked the President’s ban on transgender people from serving in the military through Twitter. While Ariane has only been at her current job since 2015, she was an investigative producer for ABC news prior to CNN. I feel that even though she has not been at this for a long time she can still be credible for reporting the facts. It is not easy becoming a Supreme Court reporter.

            The author has good evidence on the topic and how it has affected people in the transgender community. The best thing she did was have a three minute long video of a transgender person who is currently attending the Naval Academy in hope of joining the Navy upon graduation. The ban had stopped that person from continuing their training and had them in a legal limbo. The interview is tailored to reach the audience by showing how much it has hurt this individual. The author also has quoted the judge several times throughout the article explaining why they blocked the ban for the rights of these individuals. I found these sources credible after fact checking on several different websites making sure they all lined up.

            The author’s biggest rhetorical element they use is writing towards the audience. I think the author understands that people will feel strongly about this subject one way or the other. They also understand it will be very difficult to change one’s mind on this particular subject. So they use that and write specifically towards people who will agree with them. The author starts their article out with this quote. “A federal judge on Monday partially blocked enforcement of key provisions of President Donald Trump’s memorandum banning transgender people serving in the military.” Then all supporting documentation and quotes in the article support that the judge did the right thing. It goes on to quote Kollar- Kotelly about the president’s Tweet, “reasons given to them do not appear to be supported by any facts.” This goes towards how the audience would agree with the writer on how the President tried to establish the ban.

Reading Response Writing Prompt

The two characteristics of analysis I find most difficult are some description of the subject you are analyzing and clear, precise language. The description of what I am analyzing will be somewhat difficult for me because I have the tendency to assume that my audience has a general understanding of what I am talking about. In my analysis I will spell everything out to the audience and assume they have never heard of the topic. There are a few ways you can help describe you subject, you can use visuals such as pictures or video clips or you can simply just use very vivid language to help describe your topic. This is important for any analysis so you can reach a greater audience and not just focus on people who already have an understanding and interest. The clear, precise language will be difficult for me, because sometimes I have a hard time identifying what is the main point the author is trying to get across. It is important to the analysis because you want the audience to follow you closely and you want them to be confident that you know what you are talking about. I plan to use this clear, precise language to the best of my ability in keeping the flow of the analysis smooth and using direct language backed up by evidence so that there is no doubt, the audience will believe me. I plan to you all five characteristics in my analysis but these two will be the most challenging for me to incorporate.

 

Small Moment #2

I have been walking to work for the past month here in the desert of 29 Palms. It is just over a mile and while there is transportation to shuttle us, I prefer to walk in the morning to clear my head. Today, the air was crisp and dusty I felt a chill as I stepped out of the place I sleep in. I wore my jacket and kept my hands in my pockets and had a beanie on my head for warmth. About half way there I start to get warm from walking, I remove my hands from my pocket and replaced my beanie with my cover (hat). As I walked, I witnessed the sun come up, this is one of the two times a day I enjoy this place. The colors in the sky at sun rise and sunset are so vibrant. Warm colors of orange, yellow, red, and blue just make me smile. I use this quiet time to reflect on what I accomplished the day before and what I plan to get done on this day. I also think about home, I think about what I would be doing there at this time in the morning. I think about how I need to take more time like this and walk my dog and enjoy the sun coming up with my wife. As I get closer to work I can see all of the helicopters, there is little to no movement, it is very quiet, the calm before the storm as you will. Once the day gets started it will be very noisy, there will be helicopters, fuel trucks, and Marines moving all about the flight line. But these moments every morning before are ones to cherish. Finally, once I get into work, I pour my coffee and prepare for chaos.

Rhetorical Analysis and the Written Word

Brief reflection

The annotation process for me was a new thing I have done. After reading from the book, I had a good idea on what to do. I like that it gave me a different prospective on how to read an article. I think it makes it easier to retain the content when I go into it looking for answers. I think it was good writing down what I took away from it and looking up the terms I didn’t know. This helped me to understand fully what the authors where trying to get across the reader. I did agree with the writer, so I did have less questions, I think if I would have disagreed I probably would have scrutinized the article more. Either way if the writer has good evidence it is easy to get on board with what they are saying, I think the writers did a good job in this case.

Brief summary

There were quite a few rhetorical elements in this article. The use of evidence was pretty heavy. Having many references to senators and showing that there were republicans who did not agree with the bill helped out a lot. I think knowing that the audience was definitely democrats or people who don’t follow much politics, the writers wrote towards that. They talked about how it will hurt the lower class especially anyone that earns less than 30,000 dollars a year. I also think that showing how much it will hurt the already huge country deficit is another good use of evidence. They also point out how the president doesn’t really care if the democrats want to get on board, he just wants the bill to get passed. Here the writers are playing to audience, by showing it is all about the bill no matter how much it might hurt the country.