Straight From the Hippo's Mouth

Rangers Lead the Way

2009-09-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

Since last I came here, my schedule and Corps life in general have changed quite a bit. I'm trying out for Rudder's Rangers, a special unit within the Corps and sponsored by the Army that exists for the purposes of training people for infantry combat. That's all well and good, but why did I, an Air Force ROTC member who doesn't intend to commission into the military, join an infantry training group? Just for kicks.

But seriously, I've been kinda bored with the Air Force recently. Also, being in my Sophomore year, things that used to be hard just aren't anymore. Normal outfit PT is something I can do without trying, and, honestly, the new Air Force labs are a joke as far as any kind of training goes. The last three that I have attended were, respectively, marching practice (really, after I've been in the Corps for a year?), Leadership Development Courses (which I think I've been picking up better just in the Corps life), and a PT test which got cancelled because it had rained earlier in the day. Instead, we just did more marching practice and an even less organized version of the last week's events. I probably wouldn't sound as annoyed, but due to the new structure of the Air Force ROTC, I have to do the same stuff the freshmen are doing, which is exactly what I did last year. Even a large portion of my Air Force buddies are complaining.

The real reason I joined Rudder's is to get more of a challenge in my life, since the fish year stuff is gone. The challenge of Rudder's comes not only from the PT (every morning at 5:15), but also from the labs, where they teach stuff like light infantry tactics, land navigations, and other Army stuff. Additionally, there are Field Training Exercises, or FTX's, where we'll take an entire weekend and practice what we learn in the lab.

There's a bit of tradition behind Rudder's as well, just like most good Corps organizations. Rudder's is named after the 2nd Ranger Battalion, who on D-Day were not just hitting the beaches with everyone else, but instead were scaling the cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc, to destroy a battery of artillery that could have made life miserable. The Commanding Officer of the Battalion at that time Was James Earl Rudder, best known around A&M for the tower named in his honor, and as the man who integrated the school and the Corps.

"In memory of James Earl Rudder, 1910-1970, class of 1932. Heroic soldier, Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas, sixteenth President of Texas A&M University, third President of the Texas A&M University System. Earl Rudder was architect of the dream that produced this center. In this, as in all he did, he demonstrated uncommon ability to inspire men and lead them to exceptional achievements."

Corps Crud

2009-09-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year again. When 48,000 young men and women from all parts of the world gather together to advance their education... and share their particular diseases. The so-called "Corps Crud", so termed because it tends to affect the most densely packed and strongly interacting group of students on campus (that's right, I mean the Corps) is either particularly easily transmitted this year or is just so powerful that more people are complaining. It's certainly far worse than I remember last year. Additionally, there's at least one confirmed case of H1N1 "swine flu" in the First Wing, so their dorm is quarantined. Personally, I think that, in the Corps, diseases are like cockroaches: where you see one, there's probably ten more. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the particular corps crud this year.

In addition to Dorm 10 (where the First Wing resides) being quarantined, there are rumors of the band dorms (Dorms 9 and 11) being quarantined, as well as ours (Dorm 12). I talked to our health and safety sergeant today (he's taking numbers of those affected) and he said that a third of our outfit is currently sick, not counting those recently sick or those who have not yet complained. And that's why I didn't post over the start of the week. I had the exact same thing everyone else has. Monday about noon I had a scratchy throat. Monday about 3:00 I was so sick that I could barely get myself downstairs to sign out of the various afternoon training events. Tuesday was a total wash, and I either slept or tried to sleep all day. Today I'm feeling better, and I may start going to class and formations again tomorrow.

"Mr. Fury"

2009-08-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, back in College Station...

It's official. I can now truly consider myself a sophomore. I'm back in town, writing from the third floor of Utay Hall (Corps Dorm 12). My fish arrived here last Sunday, and have been going through Fish Orientation Week, or FOW. FOW is where all the fish are "indoctrinated" into the Corps. I think I described it about a year ago from the fish side of the experience, but now I have a totally different perspective. Since I'm not one of the Cadre (training staff) I didn't have to show up until Thursday, but some of my buddies and the outfit leadership have been in town since the middle of last week. They've been teaching the fish stuff like whipping out, how to greet, how to eat, how to dress... the whole nine yards.

There's a lot of old names among the fish this year. One of them is my buddy's little brother, another is one of the juniors' cousins, and one is the little brother of a senior. Several more are know personally and were recruited by us. That's not even mentioning the shared names. We also have one set of twins and two other pairs of shared names. It's just going to be a nightmare to learn all of them.

Now that I'm a sophomore, examining fish fresh out of FOW from a different perspective, I can see how incredibly silly we must have seemed a year ago. We take it for granted that everyone knows how to wear every one of five or six different uniforms, and can take perfect care of them. Not to mention the odd names that come out of their mouths. You see, when you whip out with thirty of your buddies, the noise is deafening, and you go with whatever name you think you might have heard. Thus, my budd Krakoski got called Checkovski, Markovski, and a lot of other names that ended in -ski. I heard several variants of my name, including Pharaoh, Fumble, and Fury. Mr. Fury. I think I kinda like that name.

Summer Life

2009-06-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while, but I don't really have that much going on. The only reason I'm posting is because I feel obligated to pronounce my continued existence. That and I've finally accumulated enough to write a small amount about halfway through the summer.

The main thing I'm doing in College Station is Physics. Electricity and Magnetism isn't that bad so far, but it does happen to be one of the most failed courses at A&M. I also prefer to do well in it, but even with that wish, there's really no Corps activities to speak of, and I'm only taking one class, so I keep finding stuff to do in my spare time. After an extended period of about a week trying to not be bored by playing video games with friends, I've discovered that the library has a respectable collection of Orson Scott Card books. Specifically, I've been reading the Ender's Game series. Unfortunately for me, they don't have all of them, so I'm going to have to find another place to read, but they do have 3/4 of the major storyline, as well as all of the minor storyline and a few unrelated books of the same universe. I've found that I can get through one 200-300 page book in about four or five hours, if I decide to string it out, or 3-4 if I'm in a hurry.

The Ender's Game book mostly deals with the early life of a boy, who, having been trained all of his life for war, kills what is thought to be an entire alien civilization, thinking that the final battle was merely a simulation. The rest of the series deals with the finding of another potentially deadly alien civilization and the various philisophical, familial, moral, and theological problems that it presents. Much of it (especially in the third book) revolves around what kind of alien life it is acceptable to destroy, and how to tell which is which. It's actually a quite entertaining discussion, and not terribly hard to follow most of the time. I expect that these books may become required reading if we ever decide to send a colony to a potentially livable planet. I know for a fact that the reading of the first book, dealing with Ender's development as a leader and strategist is strongly encouraged, if not required, among some of the military institutions in this country.

In addition to reading and physics, I've had the opportunity to help recruit for the Corps. It's mostly been small, behind the scenes jobs, but I've done a bit up front too. There is no possible way to describe how wierd it is to be introduced to someone who will probably be your fish next year. It's something like a combination of "who do you think you are, hot shot?" and "you have no idea what you're getting in to". Some of them have attitudes that can be annoying, until I realize that that's where I was a year ago, thinking almost exactly the same thoughts. I've also been talking to a lot of non-regs, and have found that there really is no way to comprehend what the Corps is without experiencing it.

On that note, I've noticed that the Corps has quite the public relations problem. It doesn't take a genius to notice that Corps enrollment isn't increasing the way the university is. It's not so much that everyone hates us, it's just that no one really understands us. Even when the Air Force paid to have a Chief Master Sergeant (an E-9, the highest pay grade for an enlisted person) from the Air Force Academy talk to us about leadership, it was clear he had no idea what makes us tick. And this guy's been lecturing to people like us for decades. I'm only beginning to see the start of what holds us all together myself. It's not just an internal thing to my outfit, I can meet pretty much anyone in the Corps and already know, based on my experiences, a certain amount of their prejdudices, priorities, preferences, and some of what they've gone through. Very few non-regs see past the march-ins every home game, the constant PT we're doing, the constant yelling on the Quad to see the things that make the Corps what it is. It's not so much the march-in, it's the pride in the Corps and the whole-hearted support for the university. It's not so much the PT, it's the learning from the mistakes, the bonding with your buddies, the unity within the outfit. It's not so much the yelling, it's the whip-out, the introduction between a fish and those who will train him, and the respect that must exist without which there could be no leadership.

On a lighter note, I'm having quite a bit of fun here. Between the physics, recruiting, and the library, it's hard to stay bored, despite the relative nonexistence of summer life in Aggieland. It really is amazing to walk around on a Saturday afternoon and see no one for ten minutes at a time. Additionally, with the reduced workload, I'm available to respond to comments and emails if you wish to send them, at least until fall comes around.

End of fish Year

2009-06-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, final review was about three weeks ago. Yes, I've been slow coming to this, but it's mostly due to laziness this time. Today I'm going to tell you about some of the things that happened during the last two weeks of the semester. The emphasis is on some, since there's no way that I could tell everything. There was just too much going on.

(By the way, Peter, SPOILER ALERT. It's really in your best interest not to read much of the following. Just skip down to final review and enjoy fish year.)

A note about what follows: it's not nearly as funny unless you know that hazing is a felony.

Two weeks before final review was sophomore drop. Sophomore drop is one of those things that every fish looks forward to with a large amount of excitement and more that a small amount of dread. We'd had smokings for every drop until that point, and some of the stories of what other outfits had put their fish through for sophomore drop do not bear repeating. Since it's the last time fish have to act as fish (except final review, which doesn't count) some people take the opportunity to do some really crazy stuff.

So, Friday training comes around. The entire week the sophomores had been telling us to hydrate for March to the Brazos (abbreviated MTTB, an 18 mile hike) and had been hinting that crazy stuff would happen Friday evening. When 4:30 comes around (training time) we all go into the fallout hole as is normal and then fall out onto the wall. The odd thing was that there was no one except us and the sophomores present. Apparently it's at least a good idea and it may be required (I'm not sure) for some juniors and seniors to be present at training times. Then the shocker comes. The sophomores tell us to pack C's and T's (the uniform we would wear the next morning for ) in a bag along with whatever we would need for the night. Then they sent us on a wild goose chase (driving, not walking) to places such as Rosa's , Laynes, Cold Stone, and the Chicken (where the bartender had us eat small bowls full of jalapenos and drink the same bowl full of tabasco sauce). We eventually ended up at a deserted park with plenty of back-woods trails; the perfect spot to get away with anything without being seen. The sophomores were already waiting for us. Then the police showed up. Not one, not two, not even three, but four police cars showed up. And there were our sophomores, standing around wearing shirts that said things like PRO HAZING: it's not peer pressure, it's just your turn and looking guilty. A couple of them even had axe handles, the traditional symbol of hazing at A&M. I've never seen them look so scared in my life.

Anyways, we just got on to the drop. We whipped out and had a barbecue dinner (the sophomore class has some good burger cooks) and for the first time could talk to sophomores using their first names. It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it would be. We also stopped being fish on that day. No more locking it up on the walls, no more "sir sandwiches", no more yelling our heads off on the quad. The sophomores, after a bit of questioning, told us what was supposed to happen before the police showed up. They were going to pretend to haze us. They had collected laundry bags from us earlier that they would put over our heads, lead us around the woods for a bit, they would pretend to be about to beat us. That's when we would drop.

MTTB wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Traditionally, MTTB is where everyone gets their rank for the next year (accompanied by a lot of PT after half of an 18 mile hike). So our fish class got Private First Class brass, the sophomores got non-commisioned officer brass (Sergeants and variants therof), and the juniors got office brass. The seniors then left on the buses that took them back to campus (or to the Chicken, I've heard) and we hiked all the way back.

SPOILERS END (Continue reading from here, Peter)

Dead week and finals week were a lot more fun this year. Not only could we finally talk to people normally, but there were several trips throughout the weeks. I went to a professional soccer game in Houston the Saturday before finals week, then returned the next Tuesday for a Nightwish concert, and the next day went to New Braunfels to go tubing.

Final review really wasn't as fun as it sounds. I know, the last time you have to march for a year and the first time wearing a new uniform are occasions to be glad about, but the way it was planned just messed with our lives. For one thing, Cadets are required to be out of the dorms the same day. That lead to the situation of the entire Corps trying to move out between second pass of final review and midnight. The timing of final review was exceptionally poorly planned. It occured between 5:00 and 8:00 in the evening, so there really was not much time to leave. Additionally, everyone was starving because that took up the time where most people would have dinner. By the time we left, very few places were still open to eat, and we only got home at 1:30 the next morning. We'll call that bad planning by Corps leadership and leave it at that.

The Last Days

2009-04-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed from my recent posts, things are getting a lot more relaxed around here. On Wednesday we dropped with our Juniors. What was supposed to happen was we were going to "air them out" a Corps term for a surprise wakeup call, usually applied to fish. What really happened was we started yelling and busting open doors, only to realize there was no one there. The Juniors promptly came upstairs from one of the third deck rooms and started smoking us. It's apparently a Falcon tradition. After a couple of hours of PT, we dropped with our Juniors, and can now call them by their first names.

Another thing that happened was that the Sophomores earned their white belts. That means that they can now legitimately laugh and make jokes in front of us. It's actually pretty annoying, because one sophomore in particular likes to just stand in front of me and grin. It's impossible to not crack up when that happens. Just yesterday they were in front of the dorm playing golf with fruit. Some of them are actually pretty good at it.

On Friday, for training, we had "fish interviews". Basically, we were informed that this would be an important part of our Corps career, and that we should take them seriously. Uniform was Midnights with service cover and white gloves (the best possible uniform for those not in the band). We were told that everything had to be perfect, so many people spent all day working on uniforms, and most of us went to the length of getting our shoes re-tapped to make them completely perfect. Then we get to the interview, and one by one, every five minutes, a person was called out to go downstairs and be interviewed. When it was my turn, I arrived downstairs and was greeted by most of the upperclassmen, grinning, yelling, and asking questions such as "who is the best-looking senior, fish, junior, and sophomore". At the end, they asked me who I wanted to chew out. Upon my answer, that person stood up and I got to chew him out. You have no idea what awkward is until you get to chew out an upperclassman. It's just plain wierd.

Many things are being passed down in the Corps these days, one of which is the Aggie mascot. I have a class with the new Mascot Corporal, so I se Revielle a lot these days. She gets into class and promptly falls asleep. Apparently the things required to become Mascot Corporal are some of the toughest sets of PT and character analysis in the Corps. Some of the things I have been told about include some serious paper-writing, interviews, and a lot of PT (duh).

By the way, Peter, if you tell any of this to your buddies if and when you're a fish, you're personally smoked. It ruins the experience for both us and you.

WAX PARTY!!!

2009-04-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

One of the things that the Corps, and especially squadron 16, prides itself in is professionalism. As a part of that, we cannot "know" our upperclassmens' names or address them except with a 'sir' on each end of the statement. It's a part of the normal training process for fish. Only at the end of fish year do upperclassmen start "dropping" or using first names, with fish. Apparently, we have reached that point in the year.

The event had been semi-revealed to us at the beginning of the week. At outfit meeting on Sunday evening, they told us that we would not be going anywhere Thursday night, even though there were no classes or Corps events on Friday. The last time that happened, we got our Corps Brass. Additionally, they canceled a pizza/movie party we were going to have that evening with Captain Mack, one of the Air Force officers and our military advisor.

After dinner on Thursday night (free flow!) we were led upstairs into our fourth floor hallway. The first indication that I had that something was different about the hallway was the sophomores telling us not to run when we went inside. When we reached the top, we found our normally good-looking hallway covered in mud. When most people say covered, they mean just a large amount of mud, or mostly covered, or mud everywhere. In our hallway, there was literally a half-inch of mud on the floor. There was also a good portion of mud on the walls, and even some on the ceiling. Our task: to make the hall spotless. Fast forward from 7:00 to 9:45. Once the hall was clean, we were told to change into Corps sweats and polish the hall with our bodies (polish was provided by sophomores with half-gallon jugs). There's just no way to describe how that went without pictures. I might put some up later, provided I can get my hands on the pictures.

After polishing the hall (and being the buffers for the seniors doing buffer races) we went out behind the dorm and dropped with our seniors. If it sounds anticlimactic, it wasn't. It's one of those Corps things that really is hard to explain to anyone not in the Corps, but running around in sprinklers, soaked with floor polish from head to foot (that stuff stings badly when you get it wet) yelling your hometown, major, and name at people is a big deal. It's senior drop.

So, now that we're on a first-name basis with our seniors, we can treat them like friends and upperclassmen, as opposed to just upperclassmen. The difference? No 'sir', no greeting in the hallway, no Corps games with the seniors (and only the seniors for now). We treat everyone else the same as before.

Travis Kennedy and John Busch (Corps candidates) won Junior Yell Leader. Hard work apparently can make history. Go figure.

Fishead Training and Run-offs

2009-04-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

It doesn't feel like much has happened since last week, but in reality, we've reached the last stage of being a fish. On Tuesday morning, we went on a run to earn the guidon. I wish it had been some hard task or other, but because everyone had to stay in on the run, it was probably the easiest PT I've done since last semester. I'm not even kidding. We ran the normal course of a Corps Run (about 2-2 1/2 miles) in about 25-30 minutes. In comparison, when we did the Bloody Cross (a 5k or 3 miles) we came in at about nineteen minutes. I know that it sounds wierd that I would want to do harder stuff, but getting the guidon is a big thing. After the run was over, the three "guidon brothers" were announced. Of those three, one will be the actual guidon bearer, and the other two will be his backups. Whenever we go to formation or on a rn, one of them is carrying the actual outfit guidon. The rest of us are back to normal PT now.

The other major thing that started this week is fishead (pronounced fish head) training. Essentially, at each chow, and when we're at formation, several fish are selected to be sophomores for that training event. The purpose of this is to train us in training people. The objective is to be more familiar with training procedures when it's time to train our fish (scary thought, that).

In other news, last Friday we caught a squirrel. The tradition is that if the fish catch a squirrel and deliver it to the commanding officer, they get senior privileges for a week. The reason we didn't is because we only caught it because it came up to our floor for some reason. We were back from Friday morning PT and all of a sudden, a squirrel jumps out of the trash can. We did, however, get priviliges for Monday and Tuesday (which got taken away Monday night because of smart people doing really stupid things).

In other news, today is run-off elections for Student Body President and the junior yell leaders. The three senior yell leaders are Weston Wilcox, Casey Schaeffer, and Reagan Thompson. Reagan is a bit of a stand-out, since he's not a member of the Corps. There's a lot of cadets who are just as mad as they can be, especially among the fish, since a non-reg now gets to wear things that a normal cadet could only wear after two years of Corps life. Since he's a senior yell leader, he also doesn't have to go through many of the things Casey and Weston went through. The general opinion among the Corps is that Reagan hasn't earned his position as yell leader and is going to have a hard time proving that he deserves it. The good news, however, is that the write-in candidate for junior yell, John Busch, reached the run-off election with 39% of the vote as compared to about 18% for his nearest competitor (who, incedentally, is no longer campaigning because his twin, who also was running, didn't make it). Most of us figure that the Corps will easily take the junior yell positions.

Guidon Candidacy

2009-04-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

Now that the fish class is an official part of the outfit, we are doing some new things. First, as stated before, we have junior priviliges for the week. That's going really well. It's quite relaxing to be able to walk in the hallway. That being said, we're still at the bottom of the pole, and we still have training meals and stuff like that where we have to act like fish. We were given a nice little framed certificate that we have completed outfit brass, and the brass itself. Outfit brass is virtually indistinguishable from Corps brass, with one exception. The brass in question is a crossed sword and fasces (if you don't know what that is, ask your ancient history teacher) under a shield with a helmet. The difference is that when the brass is on your collar (your left side, or the right side when someone is facing you) the helmet on Corps brass faces towards your back, and the helmet on the outfit brass faces forward. I may at some point take pictures to illustrate the point.

The really big thing we're doing now is Guidon candidacy. The guidon is the flag that is at the front of each outfit during a march-in or Corps run. Typically, when you watch a march-in, it will be the smallest flag held by an outfit. To be the guidon bearer is a position that holds much respect. It means that you have been determined to be the most capable of representing your outift in terms of physical fitness and other qualifications determined by the outfit. Right now, to earn the guidon, we are doing the most demanding exercises we have ever done. Currently, whenever we go running, we have to high-port (hold over our heads) a broom. Whenever we do pushups, we hold the broom upright with one arm and do pushups with the other. In case you're wondering, it's nigh impossible unless you're really good at pushups. I'm not. The person who will be guidon bearer should be announced at parent's weekend. I'm pretty sure (within one or two people) who will get to take guidon.

In the meantime, everything's fairly relaxed here. My only difficulty right now is reminding myself to study, now that the nine hours of personal study time has been reduced to five. I did, however, get a 95 on my last Political Science test. I'm pretty pumped about that. We get to take a day off of formation for every A we get in a three-hour course.

Brass Completion + Campaigns

2009-03-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

About four hours ago, we woke up to the sound of sophomores in the hall. About two hours ago, we were standing in front of Sully with a new piece of brass on our collar. I don't even want to try to remember all that we did between those times, so you can just assume that it was the hardest bit of P.T. we've ever done. So basically, now that we have our Outfit Brass, all requirements are off, and we're back to just the normal routine of things, except that we have Junior Priviliges for the rest of the week.

We actually did come through the Brass push without ditching anyone, but the person who drags us down the most was not present for the last two days, when we really hit perfection. It's kinda leading us to believe that we couldn't have done it with him present. He and three of my other buddies were visiting Barksdale Air Force Base. They actually met some former Falcons there, and one came back to talk to us on Sunday night. He was the '05 commander of 16, and he said that we have a seriously squared away class for the most part.

The second thing that I wanted to talk about was the campaigns for yell leaders. This year is a lot more competitive than past years have been, especially for the Junior Yell positions. There are five yell leaders elected each year, two juniors and three seniors. Traditionally, all of them come from the Corps, but non-regs persist in trying to get a spot. Actually, I'm quite impressed with a couple of them this year. Two of the non-regs have started to do 24-hour yell practices. We ran by one of them this morning while getting our brass. The big news, though, is that one of the two Junior Yell candidates from the Corps was found to have DWI and possesion of marajuiana in his past, and stepped down as a candidate on Friday. His replacement came too late to be an actual official candidate, so the 5 for yell campaign (the five from the Corps) is trying to get a write-in candidate. It's never succeeded before, but we've got a seriously intense campaign going on. Now that Outfit Brass is over, our class is doing a lot of work to push this guy through.

Spring Break (Also Human Nature)

2009-03-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

Spring Break is obviously here, since I've found time to put up a new post. Yes, my life was that busy. Here's a quick breakdown of an average daily schedule.
0530: Wake up for PT. First call at 0535
0630: Begin preparing for formation. First call at 0645
0700: Morning formation and chow
0730: Get chewed out for doing things wrong at chow before leaving for class
0800-1200: Attend class and eat lunch
1200: Return to dorm and panic, since no racks have been made (see last post)
1259: Turn in paper that says we have made all racks one minute before due
1300-1500: Personal study time (hereafter termed PCQ)
1500-1545: Prepare uniform for inspection (must begin inspection by 1545)
1545-1600: Prepare for afternoon PT (drink water, read the world's news, etc)
1600-1630: Meet with buddies in fallout hole and argue about who should have been doing what
1630-1800: Get smoked until we can't do anymore, then get smoked for looking limp
1815: First call for evening formation and chow
1900: Return to dorm and take shower, prepare for CQ
1915 or 1930: Start CQ
2200: End CQ, personal time technically starts, go to fallout hole to get chewed out further
2215: Personal time really starts, begin polishing for next day.
2230: Lights out. Discuss daily problems with old lady, get mad at each other, etc.

As you can see, this is a really tough schedule. While I do get a fair amount of sleep, the stress I'm under is really getting to me. Due to the snoring of my old lady and a really annoying sophomore (not that they're all nice, but this one is especially a pain) I had a pretty bad breakdown last Wednesday morning. But that's not what's been causing my real stress.

Why a new paragraph? I really hate human nature. But the purpose of the Corps of Cadets is becoming more and more clear. Yes, it helps deal with stress, and yes, it makes you a leader, but the source of the stress and the leadership experience is conflict with human nature. The reason we have outfit brass is to make all the deadbeats, chopouts, and lazy people show up under the spotlight of a tremendous task. Our biggest task is now to decide what to do with them. Do we ditch them and make our class more efficient, while ruining the ambitions of those few? Or do we keep them and do what we can to make them do their jobs and ultimately, become better people? As much as I would like to help them along, the few are making the task much more difficult for the many. After brass is over, I'll tell you what we decide to do and how it turn out. Don't expect that post for a while. We're a big class and take a while to make decisions. In the meantime, prayers for our collective decision-making ability and my personal witness are appreciated.

Outifit Brass Details (hint: it's not fun)

2009-03-06T20:37:00.001-08:00

So earlier this week I told how Outfit Brass started. Well, now we have a few more details on how it works. Here is a nearly complete list of requirements for completion. Watch for updates if I forgot anything.

1. Each fish must get one perfect uniform inspection and one perfect hole inspection.

2. Each squad (4-5 fish) must have one perfect chow, to include getting to the table before the sophomores, finishing before them, and making no mistakes while at the table.

3. Each rack (bed) must be unmade and all sheets neatly folded and placed on the rack by morning formation. Starting at 9:00, racks can be made. All must be made perfectly by 2:00.

4. All upperclassmen must be greeted 3-deep for the duration of Brass push. See previous post for more info.

5. We will go on a unity trip tomorrow to work together for two days (coming back Sunday around 2:00) and get to better know each other.

6. Seven hours of Personal Call to Quarters (personal study time during the day) must be completed per fish per week. This amount may go up as the push continues.

7. Physical Training is much more difficult, and involves many exercises that emphasize mental, not physical, strength. For example, wall-sits, where we lean against the wall with our legs in the position they would be in a chair. It's torture after about a minute. I think we typically do it for five minutes at a stretch.

8. We cannot use mirrors for the duration of Brass. Any function that needs a mirror should be filled by a buddy.

As you can see, Outfit Brass requires perfection from the fish class. Basically, it means we don't get our Brass until they decide we're ready for it. I will probably have more to say about the unity trip when I come back. I hope it will be fun, but regardless, I will enjoy being away from the Corps for a full day.

P.S. Check out the new Falcon Sixteen Website. It's not done yet, but it's already looking better than the old one.

Still Alive

2009-03-02T07:41:00.001-08:00

Outfit Brass push is here! This is the part of my Corps career where we prove to the upperclassmen that we are a fish class worthy to be called Falcons. This is supposed to be much harder than Corps Brass, where we were merely showing that we could be fish in the Corps. Corps Brass they actually had to give to us (though they have at times threatened to take it away). There is no such requirement for Outfit Brass. There are actually classes that have not gotten it in the past. Also, there is not deadline. Our juniors reportedly too six weeks, and our sophomores took about a wee and a half. I'm seeing a strong correlation between class size and length of Outfit Brass, so I don't expect to be done anytime soon.

To officially kick off Otfit Brass, we went to the MSC this morning (the place is deserted at 5:45) and read all the records of the Medal of Honor Winners. When we got back, after formation, we had to re-whipout to out seniors, since we are now greeting "three-deep". Three-deep greeting requires us to greet with name, hometown, and major. So basically, everyone's going to try to avoid the quad when there are likely to be seniors present. I expect that in the next few days we will also be greeting juniors and then sophomores three-deep. In the three hours since formation, at least three lists of seniors with major and hometown have been sent out on the fish listserv. At least we've got some idea of what we're doing. I expect we'll start going over them like campos in the near future.

In other news, I'm actually doing well in all of my classes. I just got out of an exam for my SOMS class (it's supposed to teach us how to be direct leaders, but I haven't actually learned anything yet) and I think I did pretty well, considering I spent all of five minutes studying for it. Organic chemistry and Calculus three are both doing alright, and I'm pretty sure I'm beating my junior who's in Cal 3 and my sophomore in O-chem. I absolutely destroyed my Poly Sci class, and should get a bag-in for that on Thursday. Air Force classes are pretty fun right now. A couple of weeks ago we got to train on M9's, which are the standard issue pistol of the U.S. armed forces. It's hard to shoot straight with a pistol. We're also preparing to give sample briefings on leadership and teamwork (whee).

Welcome back to the Corps

2009-01-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

After a long Christmas break and relaxation time, I'm now back in the Corps. I had a good time over Christmas, went skiing, and tried to teach certain of my buddies how to ski. In the process, I got to actually relax with upperclassmen, instead of being a fish constantly. The trip to Colorado is a twenty hour bus ride each way, so we watched a lot of movies, did some reading, and slept as much as is possible on a bus. Breckenridge was beautiful, and we got an entire foot of snow while we were there. It was interesting watching the juniors and sophomores, since they were snowboarding instead of skiing, and didn't like powder very much in consequence.

I've been back here for about two weeks now, but it's only just now starting to settle down to a "normal" Corps experience, with a couple of exceptions. First was that Sunday marked 112 days until final review. If that doesn't mean anything to you, realize that I am in the class of '12. To mark this historic occasion, we had fishead day yesterday. Basically, we got to act like sophomores for an entire day. We were "chicken dropped" with our upperclassmen, meaning we could call them by their last names without saying sir, and we didn't have to run around in the hallways. Additionally, the sophomores did what they could to tell us what new things go on during sophomore year. It was a more relaxed day, and I learned a lot. Today's a bit more annoying, since Monday was 111 days until final review, and our sophomores are class of '11. Today, therefore, is butthead day. The sophomores ('heads) get to act like juniors (butts) for a day. Let me tell you, they're enjoying it a lot. They can smile and joke around us, and they're doing a lot of it. We're expecting that the juniors will also have their day tomorrow, but it probably won't be that much different.

This semester, I'm taking fifteen hours, the same amount as last semester, but now it's a more consolidated schedule. I actually have time to do things this semester. I will also have more free weekends, since there's no football games. Unfortunately, the classes I have are also harder (o-chem and cal 3) so I'll be studying more. Apparently I will also have more Corps responsibilities later in the semester in preparation for outfit brass (I'll tell you more when I know more) so studying is going to be harder to squeeze in.

The Corps is Dead (Long Live the Corps?)

2008-12-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

That week that all college students alternately love and hate has arrived. Dead week and finals are here! The Corps has died along with classes. We basically have junior privileges that can't be taken away, and no classes to go to except for finals. The relief among the fish class has been expressed in a number of ways. I mysteriously acquired an online dating profile (of the non-reputable kind) and several people have had shaving cream bombs go off in their rooms, had their stuff duct-taped to the ceiling, or had "insignificant" items go missing. Between the bouts of mayhem, we've all found time to study until we think our heads will explode.

It really is amazing how different dead Corps is from live Corps. Instead of being constant training, we rarely see our upperclassmen, and when we do, we rarely interact. The only exception is our Squad Leader evaluations. Over the semester, we've been parts of squads of four to five fish led by a sophomore. That sophomore is our main trainer. He takes specific notice of how we do, eats chow with us, and makes sure we're keeping up with studies. This week, our squad leaders gave us an honest evaluation of how we did. It was pretty helpful. Our squad leader basically told us "You're going to have a hard time coming back. That's normal. You're going to regret coming back. That's also normal. PT over the break."

Brass and Bonfire

2008-12-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago yesterday, we finally got our Corps Brass. We were woken up at about five in the morning to the sound of our sophomores trying to shake our doors to pieces and Squadron 21 and 12, who live below us, smashing slapboards against the ceiling. Within three minutes, we were all out on the wall stretching out to do some serious PT. During the course of the next two hours, we ran across campus to do pushups and flutterkicks on the hill in front of the Bonfire Memorial, pushups on the fish pond, and various other painful methods of common exercises. At the end of it all, we got the brass from our juniors in front of the arches, then ate breakfast with the seniors at Sbisa.

That weekend was one of the best, and also one of the worst that I've had so far. It was great because not only did we get our brass, but we also had Bonfire and I had college lunch at church. It was one of the worst because between the combination of Bonfire, guard room, and earning brass, I worked harder than I have in my entire life with six hours of sleep in three days. That, combined with a bad cold, caused me to nearly pass out at outfit meeting on Sunday night.

Bonfire was an interesting experience, not just for the traditional Aggie things you already know about, but for the unexpected experiences and snafus that night. One of the things that happened was we showed up at almost the exact same time as our sophomores, so we talked with them for almost the entire six or seven hours we were there. Talking to sophomores at bonfire is a strange experience that will probably never be experienced by anyone outside the Corps, or even by much of the Corps. It was a mixture of them telling stories about their time as fish, giving advice on how to be good fish, recounting their reactions to certain events, and general good bull.

The annoying thing about Bonfire is the way that it is set up now. Since it is off campus, you get about ten thousand people all needing parking. The parking lots are a series of huge fields about five miles from the actual burn site. There are buses running from parking to Bonfire, so you don't have to walk (in fact, they strongly discourage walking). The only trouble is, at midnight, when everyone wanted to leave, the twelve buses that had been running earlier had turned into three (no, I don't know why), so about five thousand people were trying to leave at once on those three buses. The only way we got out before about four in the morning was because several of our upperclassmen generously brought back a truck and carried a truckload of drivers to their cars so they could pick the rest of us up.

The thing that was really lousy about that weekend was that by Sunday morning, with the combined effects of a relatively late night on Friday, earning brass on Saturday, Bonfire Saturday night through early Sunday morning, and flag detail at 6:30 Sunday morning, and a bad cold, I almost passed out at outfit meeting Sunday night. I had bag-ins for the next two mornings, so I was able to recover pretty quickly.

Last Full Week of the Corps

2008-11-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

As you may know, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. What you may or may not also know is that the Corps is about to start winding down. This is the last full week of classes before the end of the semester, since next week is Thanksgiving break/t.u. game and the week after that is dead week. As such, we should be getting our Corps Brass either Friday or Saturday, which I am very thankful for. During the past few weeks, our class has messed up everything. What do I mean by everything? I'll tell you.

One of the things the fish do every formation is blow calls. Blowing calls is basically a training thing to make sure we have our heads in the game before any event. What happens is one fish and one buddy will come out of their hole about ten seconds (we have to time it exactly to official government time) before the official time for first call. The one who is blowing calls will be wearing a pot (Corps speak for an old hard hat) and carrying a horn. The two fish run down to the end of the hallway, blow the horn, and announce what event is happening, who the senior in charge of it is, who the junior in charge of call to quarters is, and who the sophomore of the day is, as well as the temperature and uniform of the day. We've messed up calls more times during brass than we've gotten them right. It's silly little things like not knowing exactly what the temperature is, not falling out exactly on time, or getting the uniform wrong.

The next thing we've been messing up is getting near the guidon. This is something that we pay dearly for. The guidon is the symbol of our outfit, and the sophomores smoke us hard when we get near it, walk behind it at chow, or, in some cases, actually run into the guidon bearer. I don't know how we keep not seeing it, since the bearer is the tallest sophomore we have, and the guidon itself is about seven feet long with a blue flag on top.

Then come the "various other". We've geen having a general lack of effort in things like uniform drills, inspections, campusologies, and things of that nature. In some cases, it's just stupid mistakes like missing words we can't know, but in the case of uniform inspections, some people just don't spend enough time on it. I'm pretty sure we're going to get smoked hard for the "various other".

On an upwards note, Bonfire is this Saturday! On a down note, we have guard room Saturday-Sunday! The outfit with the best Bonfire tradition was actually given guard room duty on the night of Bonfire. I've actually been out to cut logs once, and it was an experience. We actually got to talk to our sophomores like normal people and learn some special secrets from them (like exactly how to make a shoe look good). We also spent all morning cutting down a huge tree, and were ready to carry it out of the forest when someone at another site dropped their log and broke someone's leg. The leadership at the cutting area decided to suspend the carrying of logs for the rest of the day, so I'm not even sure if our log got out of the forest.

I'm actually doing alright now, though I was on the verge of a total breakdown on Tuesday. I haven't been getting enough sleep (actually, I think I'll get one full night of sleep this week, and that was on Monday) and I have a hard time keeping from smiling at the stupid things the juniors and seniors say. Another problem I'm having is that, to keep from smiling, I'm biting my cheeks, so they're now totally raw, which keeps me from eating quickly. Now the sophomores think I'm one of the limpest fish in the outfit. I've picked up recently, and actually managed to survive a good bull session without smiling once! (That's a big accomplishment, really)

First Week of Corps Brass

2008-11-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Corps Brass push officially started on Monday! This is the part of the fish year where we get to prove to our upperclassmen that we are, indeed, capable of being good little fishies in the Corps. Up to this point, apparently, we have been in a kind of "probationary fish" stage. Now we will get the right to actually wear the Corps symbol on our collar in the place of one of the A.M.U.'s that we normally wear.

To prove that we can be good fish, we have to accomplish a number of goals over the next few weeks. One of those is daily uniform inspections. In one of these inspections, a sophomore goes over you with a notecard and measures your brass, checks your shoes and belt buckle, and generally finds everything that could possibly be wrong. On the notecard, they record all the "cuts" on the uniform so that we can fix them later. In all seriousness, I actually like that part of brass, because my uniform is finally looking how it should. We also can ask questions about how to fix things like deep scratches in brass, scuffs on shoes, and other things like those.

Another thing that's been happening during this week is we're getting smoked a lot more. I'm not sure if it's because it's Corps Brass or what, but we've messed up a lot this week. First, we forgot to run Batfish on Monday. Batfish is the daily delivery of the Battalion, the school newspaper, to our upperclassmen's doors. We had to do a class set (112) of pushupsfor that. The very next day, we forgot again. Another class set. Also, several people didn't do the required amount of Personal Call to Quarters (PCQ) for the week, so we had to do another class set on Friday. Needless to say, we're all more than a little annoyed at the person responsible.

One interesting thing that came out of out Tuesday PT was a six-mile run. We ran from the quad all the way to George Bush Library and back again. I did pretty well, but I can't say the same for all my buddies, or even some of the sophomores and juniors. One sophomore actually complained audibly to his buddies in front of all the fish. Doing better than the upperclassmen in a run makes us all feel great.

Another thing that has changed during Corps Brass is that the good bull from the juniors and seniors has almost completely stopped. Usually, the juniors and seniors don't miss a chance to mess with our minds, do weird things, and generally relax with us (in a wierd, upperclassman, sort of way). It's fun, and it gives me a chance to practice not smiling in the hallway.

I'm still doing alright here, but I'm exhausted. I think I've stayed awake through one whole class this week, and that was the Air Force class, where bad things happen to those who sleep. The late march-in and lack of tasks should give me a chance to catch up on sleep, though.

Looking up?

2008-10-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

This week was one of the best I've had so far. The biggest reason was that I didn't mess up any upperclassmen's names, so I had no extra papers to write. As you know, I've had a lot of trouble with that in the past. The weather has also been a bit nicer, with temperatures recently maxing out at about 70 degrees. You have no idea how much of a difference clear skies and comfortable afternoons makes when you have to be running around outside as often as I do.

Last weekend was "traditions weekend" for Squadron Sixteen, so after getting smoked for a while (though I wasn't there for all of it, courtesy of AFROTC), we were taken out to some of the important statues and historical locations on campus, such as Sully (Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue) and the West Gate Memorial. After We visited those places, we were taken to the Bonfire Memorial and told the story of Tim Kerlee, who died in the collapse. When we got back to the dorm, we were met in our holes by the sophomores, who gave us hand-down bonfire shirts. These shirts are a big deal, since they are the same ones our seniors, juniors, and sophomores wore to bonfire in the past. They also have never been washed, so they smell like a barbecue pit.

This Friday the Air Force ROTC class had nothing to do with anything we would be expected to do in the military. They took us out to the Rec center had paid for us to climb the rock wall for two hours, then said "go have fun". We had a blast. That rock wall beats the socks off of any I've done before, as it has at least ten different ways to climb, as well as obstacles like backwards angling walls, overhangs, and one spot which has a ridge you have to climb around (it's a lot harder than it sounds). By the end of that session, my arms were exhausted and they're still prone to cramping up if I grab something too hard.

Training has been going about the same as usual, though I think they're having a little more trouble finding things to smoke us about. There's been a couple of hard smokings due to a couple of my buddies doing stupid things like playing World of Warcraft during CQ, or pinning their wheets, both of which are "honor violations", the hardest category of smoking we can get. Needless to say, everyone was pretty mad when they heard about one of our buddies playing games during CQ. The most expressed sentiment is "If you're going to play games, at least aviod doing it during the time you're most likely to be caught".

Since the smokings have generally been shorter, we are now doing things like rack drills and hallway cleaning drill more often. A rack drill is where you have to remake your bed in a certain amount of time. Usually, we have about seven to eight minutes to make all the beds of the fish who are present. So far, we haven't succeeded once. We are getting closer, but I don't expect we'll actually meet one of those goals until second semester.

Speaking of second semester, did you know that I am now done with one twelfth of my Corps career? That's right, two thirds of the way through first semester and one third of the way through fish year. Can you tell I'm looking forward to Christmas break?

Besides approaching Christmas break, we're getting close to starting our push for Corps brass. Corps brass is the pin that you can see on the collar of upperclassmen, with the helmet and crossed swords. During push for brass, we will be doing a whole lot of PT and various other forms of training. It should finish up about the time of the t.u. game, so we can wear our new Corps brass to Austin. We're also going to begin training to earn the Guidon, but we won't earn that until late next semester.

We have two assignments over the weekend. The first is to obtain the largest pumkin we can physically fit into the dorm. The second is to create a "fish guidon". The fish guidon is apparently a very competitive thing among the Corps, so we're going to spend a lot of time on that over the weekend and next week. I'll try to keep you posted on how Corps brass, fish guidon, and "Mr. O'Lantern" are going, so expect an update somtime next weekend.

Various Other

2008-10-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

During my time blogging here, I've tended to outline the bare basics of what we've been doing. Now I'd like to tell you some of the other more or less fun things we've done over the past month.

Squadron Sixteen is very much into Bonfire. By the way, you didn't hear that from me, since Bonfire is no longer university affiliated. But anyways, we've been making pots for bonfire. a pot is kinda like a hard hat, but a lot more decorated. Ours look a lot like the sweater that Charlie Brown is always wearing: black with a yellow stripe, and black zigzags inside the yellow stripe. You have no idea what chaos is until you've experienced something like that. We had to get them done over the period of a week, which turned out being a weekend. Over that weekend, we had to get paint, pots, liners, sandpaper (because the pots come with a rough texture that needs to be taken off), and a place to do it all.

Getting the supplies alone took all week, so we weren't able to do anything until after the game that was that weekend (I think it was the Army game). Those of us who had to get up for church in the morning had to finish most of the pot that night, so we were up until about three in the morning. I chose not to stay up, so I had to finish mine on Sunday afternoon, which was rough. I was, however, able to learn from my buddies' mistakes that way, which saved me a few hours along the way.

Another noteworthy event was m16 training with the Air Force. The m16 is the standard issue battle rifle for the United States armed forces, unless you actually plan on getting into combat. Then you'll use an m4, but that's another story. Anyways, for m16 training, we used rifles that had essentially been "dumbed down". They had been converted to shoot .22 caliber bullets instead of the 5.56mm rounds that they normally fire. For those that don't know guns, that's like turning on Ross's Mustang and finding out it has the engine of the Lumina. Basically, the sole purpose of the training was to familiarize us with the was the gun works, but the purpose was defeated because the converted m16's jammed about every third shot. It was a good time, but they really need to train us with real m16's, not dumbed down ones.

We've also had some good bull nights out with Squadron Sixteen as a whole. A few weeks ago was Falcon Night Out, so the entire squadron went out to bowl, then to the Chicken Oil Company for a meal. We got to meet some old "former Falcons", previous members of Squadron Sixteen. They gave us some pointers on how to be better fish, which we have since taken to heart. Basically, these nights out have been a time for the fish and sophomores to relax. Yes, I did say sophomores. Whenever they don't get time off for a while, they start getting annoying. Apparently they're people as well.

One of the pieces of advice that the former Falcons gave us was to every once in a while, do something really, incredibly stupid, and have fun doing it. We've been trying to do that ever since, but it's pretty hard to get up the courage. We did try to recon the skateboard that Mr. Campos (one of our juniors) rides up and down the hall during Call to Quarters. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit in our lockers, so we had to give it back. One of the rules of reconning is if you can't hide it, they can take it back just as easily.

I've also been writing a lot of papers recently. Whenever we really, badly mess up the names of our upperclassmen, we have to write papers of a certain number of differences between them. Those papers can take up a lot of time, so it's advisable not to mix up names. Generally, the papers start at sixteen differences. If we mess up the names again, or do something wrong on the paper, the differences start to add up. I recently had to write two 61 difference papers at a time. Needless to say, I won't be mixing up those upperclassmen again. At least I haven't been doing as bad as Ross did (116 differences) or as badly as my buddy Brewer (160 differences). I also seem to be the only one who can tell Ross apart from Mr. Wiley and Mr. Stitt.

We've also gotten some new responsibilities. Every week, we need to write squad reports. There are six squads of fish in our class, with about four to five fish each. Every week, we need to detail what exams we have coming up, what grades we have gotten back in the past week, a personal goal for each fish, a squad goal for each squad, and a goal for our entire class. Another responsibility (well, we've had this since about the third day of FOW) is blowing calls. Before any official oufit or corps activity, we have to go to the ends of the hallway and yell at the top of our lungs the activity, ofiicer of the day, junior in charge of call to quarters, sophomore of the day, temperature, uniform of the day, and what we will be having for chow (if applicable). It's really easy to mess calls up, especially if you're easily flustered. I actually did a nearly perfect set of calls yesterday and today.

I'm still doing pretty well, and now that I've got most of the upperclassmen's names down well, I shouldn't have to write many more papers. I'm actually starting to do better on my studying (earlier in the semester I had trouble finding time) and have found some interesting sources for help (ever heard of Wikibooks? Their basic calculus textbook is easier to understand than either one I have, if less detailed). I'm really enjoying hanging out with some of my buddies on weekend nights. I was actually surprised at how many are pretty devoted to abstinence and not drinking. One of my buddies (naming no names) actually broke down in tears afte he heard his girlfriend at another university had gotten drunk. Apparently Sixteen tends to attract these kinds of people. I'm really happy with most of them.

Living for the weekend

2008-10-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

This past couple of weeks, our class seems to have messed up a lot of things. First, it was Campusologies (campos for short). Campos are those facts about Texas A&M that all cadets are required to know, and generally learn during fish year. We have been assigned three per week since the start of the semester, and we have not yet managed to memorize all of them by the end of the week. Our Sophomores finally got mad enough about it to start making us push every time we mess up. Last training, we messed up almost every campo we were asked. That would have been the hardest training we've had yet, but we had to get ready for a march-in past Dr. Murano's (the new A&M president) house.

Also, we've been consistently messing up with the Guidon. The Guidon is the flag that is held in front of our outfit whenever we march in. The Guidon Bearer is a sophomore, and the fish are not allowed to go anywhere near him while he's holding the Guidon. You would think that a six-foot-someodd Sophomore holding a six-foot flag would be hard to miss, but he somehow manages to hide at the end of the hall behind some of his buddies. I'm pretty sure he does it intentionally, too. Guidon smokings are the hardest we've had, and we're in for some more on Monday.

On the other hand, the good bull is starting to rack up. On Tuesday night, we gave Mr. Schubert, one of our Juniors, a swirly to commemorate his birthday. While we were dragging him out of his room, Ross handed me one of his uniform parts to bargain for privileges with. This kind of dealing is called reconning, and it's something to take pride in. Usually, it's started by the fish, but I think Ross thinks we need to start pulling this kind of thing out more often. Unfortunately, we have to earn the right to bargain by doing PT. The way it goes (or so I've gathered, we haven't actually done the bargaining yet) is we push for however many privileges we can stand. Monday's going to be rough, but at least it'll be worth it.

Also, this morning, instead of normal outfit PT, we went to the Rec center and did our PT there. It was a choice of whatever you could do at 5:45 in the morning, so Ross and a couple of other upperclassmen started an indoor soccer game. That was probably the best game of soccer I've played in years. When we were done, Mr. Martin, the head yell leader and one of our Seniors, gave me and a couple of my buddies who couldn't walk very well a ride back to the dorm.

I've not had any time this week to do anything, thanks to a couple of papers I have yet to get right. I've gotten to the point where I've told Mr. Towns, the Sophomore to who I owe the papers, that he's just going to have to wait until I can can catch up on my homework. Fortunately for me, in our outfit that's a legitimate excuse. Mr. Porier, our Commanding Officer, has announced that we're pushing for the Joleen award this year. The Joleen award is the award that goes to the outfit with the best scholastics. It's very hard for our outfit to get, being an engineering outfit and still taking training seriously.

This is probably the first time this week I've had to actually goof off, so I'm enjoying it thoroughly. We also got Junior privileges from one of our Seniors because we agreed not to tackle her after Arch Yell. That means I can listen to music and play games, not wear fish dress, not get on the wall, walk in the hallways, talk in the hallways, and generally act mostly like a normal human being. It's great.

Privileges

2008-09-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well, things have been going alright in the Corps so far. In fact, we've done well enough that we've earned some new "privileges". In the Corps, privileges work differently than the name implies. They're not things you can do, they're things you must do. It's also really good "bull" to get them done. Dont' worry that's not an obscene reference, it refers to good times with the upperclassmen. Usually good bull is between the fish and the seniors or juniors, and almost never with the sophomores.

So, this weekend we earned the "right" to do our first class set of pushups. For us, the class of 2012, a class set is 112 pushups. It's really hard, but they don't have to be perfect pushups. By doing our first class set, we earned our first slapboard. A slapboard is a wooden board hanging from the ceiling with mottos written on them. We have earned the slapboard closest to the stairs on the north end of the dorm. The idea behind a slapboad is that you slap it whenever you pass beneath it. It's a lot bigger deal than it sounds.

The other set of privileges we earned was a temporary set of junior privileges. We won our fish football game this weekend, so whoever showed up got the same privileges that a junior would have, such as the right to be out of uniform in the hallway, the right to walk in the hallway, and other related things. Temporary privileges are awarded based on some kind of good behavior, or (apparently) can be bargained for with a piece of upperclassmen's property (known as a recon). Another example of temporary privileges is if we catch a squirrel and bring it back to the dorm without hurting it, we get senior privileges for a week. So it's not uncommon to see fish chasing squirrels around.

I'm still doing pretty well personally. I'm enjoying being done with my history paper and I'm almost certain I aced my physics exam. I also have a math exam on Thursday, so I'm studying hard for that. I'm also likely to pass the next physical fitness test I take, shich is a big deal because I couldn't when I got here. I'm a lot better at pushups than I once was.

Football Weekend

2008-09-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, last weekend was my first Aggie football game as a member of the Corps. With football weekends come quite a hectic schedule, though not quite as bad as the rest of the week.

The football weekend really starts on Friday night at Midnight Yell (don't bother asking what time it's at). At Midnight Yell, we get to hang out for a bit in Kyle Field and yell our heads off. We also get stories and jokes from the Yell leaders. It's a great time, but I wish it was a little earlier, because we got up at 5:15 that morning. Needess to say, on Saturday I was exhausted.

On Saturday morning we had to get up early for marching practice, since this would be our first real march in. You could tell the upperclassmen were fairly nervous from the way they frantically rearranged, reorganized, and yelled at us. Even all the practice didn't do the job, since one or two fish were still out of step during the march around Kyle. We had a brief period after the march in to gather water and tickets before going to the game itself. During that time I was supposed to get a picture with Ross and Caleb, but Ross never showed up. Apparently he had to be in "boot line", when the seniors make a path for the football players onto Kyle.

The game itself was not that great. With about ten minutes to go the Aggies were up 14-9, so all the fish started to take the brass off of their uniforms and head to the field level to tackle the Yell Leaders. When the Aggies win, the fish are supposed to chase down and tackle the Yell Leaders, then take them to the Fish Pond and throw them in. Unfortunately for us, Arkansas came back with four minutes left and all us fishies were left standing awkwardly on the edge of the field.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of boot pulling. When the seniors come back from class and want to get out of uniform, they cannot get their boots off on their own. So they call for a fish to pull boots. It's a win-win situation, since the senior can get his boots off and the ifsh is often rewarded with some candy or just some normal talking time with a senior. Occasionally they'll also give tips on uniform care or time management. It's worth the effort.

I personally am still doing fine, though I expect life is not going to be so easy for much longer. We've been having major messups all week which means we're going to get smoked a lot, and I couldn't manage to get enough pushups to pass my Physical Fitness Test, so I'm on remedial PT. That means every day I'll be getting up an hour leader and training with some really mad sophomores.

FOW over

2008-08-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted in a while. I, as you could probably guess, have been busy. There's no possible way I could tell you all of the things I've learned in the past week (I don't remember all of them myself), but I'll give you a brief overview. By the way, don't expect many pictures. I don't have time to work with those.

Marching: We have learned to march. Marching is not as easy as it soulds. I know some people think it's all about keeping in step, but there's a lot more to it than that. There's at least nine different ways of marching we've learned, and none of them came easy. Most of them have to do with turning corners. With 31 fish in the class, the back rows can get pretty messed up on corners, so we've spent about two or three hours a day just working on corners

Talking: Any adress to an upperclassman in our outfit must be "sir sandwiched", one sir on each end of the statement. To make a statement or question, you have to say, "Sir, Mr. whoever Sir, fish Fearing requests permission to make a statement/question sir". If you don't remember their names, you have to greet them again. Sophomores get very mad when you forget their names. You can also not use personal pronouns such as I or We. You must use fish whoever or Flacon 16 fish. It makes you think hard before you talk.

Room cleaning: Everything has to be in it's own place. Beds have to be made just so, hangars hung just so, and some things go in the mos illogical places. Anything on a desk has to be "grounded" to the edge of the desk. I suppose I'll learn some shortcuts after a while, but cleaning a hole takes a long time.

Dressing: I now have four different uniforms I know how to wear. CFT's, the second easiest, are what you have seen pictures of me in during FOW. Ask my Mom if you want to see them. It's basically a white T-shirt and khaki shorts with a belt and a hat. PT gear is the easiest, just Falcon 16 shorts and shirt tucked in. We are the first fish class to be issued ACU's. That's what we're wearing in Mom's pictures of FOW friday. I alsohave some idea how to wear Bravos, the khaki uniform you always think of the Corps as wearing

No matter what Ross tell you, I am doing fine. The only real issues I have right now are learning names (everyone in the outfit needs work on that), keeping a straight face (the juniors and seniors say the strangest things while we're on the wall), and eating quickly. I'm writing this during a break between classes, then I'll meet with a buddy who has her ID card with her so I can get into the dorm.

So far I've identified a few things worth looking forward to. First, the academic day. I don't have to be in the dorm all day except classes, so that makes things much more relaxed. Second, Sunday. Church is the greatest relaxation I've had yet (I stilll have to call Ross sir, though). Third, free weekends. We had one of those recently, and it was great. I went out to eat with my buddies (anything's better than Duncan food) and just generally took a break.

Classes so far have just been "here's the syllabus, this is what it means, get out of here". Makes my life easier, to say the least.

PT and more

2008-07-19T12:54:00.001-07:00

I may have mentioned before that the Corps will be physically challenging. Well, now I'll give you something more specific. To pass the Corps physical test, you have to make a 1 1/2 mile run in about 15 minutes, as well as 42 pushups and 50 someodd situps. Right now I can probably do the run easily, the situps barely, and nowhere near 40 pushups. So Ross has kindly allowed me to tag along when he "PT's" and push me along. It's amazingly tiring.

Here's a basic outline of what I've done as far as exercise this week, starting on Thursday.
Thursday morning: about 8:00 I was awakened and 15 minutes later we were headed out to Pecan Park to run the Lanana creek trail. Pecan is about at the halfway point, so we started off in one direction, at Ross's pace. After about the hardest 3/4 of a mile I had ever run, we reached a set of pull-up bars. Of course, we couldn't let those go unchallenged, so I did about seven, while Ross did about ten. I don't remember exactly because I was having trouble with the oxygen levels in my brain. From there we continued to run to Liberty Hall, the Southernmost extent of the trail. There, we did pushups. After about 25-30 pushups, probably less, I just about passed out from the combined effects of the running, pushups, and having not eaten yet that day. After I revived a bit, we headed back north to Pecan, at my pace this time. Needless to say, it took us much longer to get to Pecan than it took to get to Liberty Hall.

Friday morning: I got up a bit earlier on Friday, mostly so that I could prepare for the day. This time I took Ross's advice and had some blueberry-lemon bread for a snack before we left. I also took the opportunnity to make some gatorade. Then we headed back out to Pecan to run Lanana again, but with a change: this time we did the whole thing. We started off heading south, through SFA down to the post office. That part of the trail is the least shaded, so we did it as early as possible. By the time we reached Pecan again, I was lagging badly with the entire north end of the trail to go. Ross, wanting to get his whole run in, told me I needed only to run until I met him coming back down the trail, then turn around. The only condition he added to that was that if I didn't get far enough, we would do sprints. More on those later. I did, however, survive the run, and go quickly enough to avoid sprinting.

Saturday morning: This morning, we went to the farmers market before delivering Mom to the gym and heading off to the SFA stadium. We got a few peaches and a very ripe cantaloupe.
At the stadium, Ross declared his intention to push me really hard. To that end, we warmed up (!) with a short, easy mile run. Then, it was off to the sprints. The objective of a sprint is to run the length of a football field as fast as possible, stopping at regular intervals to do pushups, situps, etc.
Ross taught me this really cool thing called a diamond. Basically, it's a pushups where your hands are together and your thumb and first finger form a diamond. Like a pushup, but lots harder. We did four of these sprints, then caught our breath for a couple minutes.
Then we did what Ross calls "suicides" (insert doom music here). A suicide is a set of short sprints, first to the ten yard line, then the twenty, then the thirty, touching each line with your hand. The name is quite descriptive of how it feels.
After the suicides, we cooled down by walking a slow lap of the track. Ross and I were both sick (litterally) of situps, Ross slightly more so than me. We did manage to make it home without incident though.

After having finally asked Ross how this compares to Corps PT, he said it's the same stuff, but more of it. It's gonna be rough.

I did finally get my Eagle Scout Board of Review last night, so I am officially an Eagle Scout! That means I'll get at least a small scholarship as well as the priviledge of wearing the medal on my uniform.

Life Changing Events (part 2)

2008-07-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

The next big thing in my life is that I have FINALLY gotten all the requirements for my Eagle Scout rank finished. And not a moment too soon. All I have left to do is my Eagle Board of review. At the Eagle Boar, they ask you questions about the scout skills you've learned, about your Eagle project, and some general life questions. This is not some wimpy "Hi-all-your-requirements-are-done-we-pass-you" sort of thing. If you aren't up to speed on skills, your project, or especially life in general, the board will not pass you.

As many of you know (and many don't), my Eagle project was building props for the ballet teacher in town. Our troop with help from a carpenter friend of ours built two "houses" with three walls and a roof out of 2x2 lumber and plywood. They were designed with the dimensions of a pickup truck in mind, so they can be taken apart, transported, and put back together fairly easily, if not especially quickly. The previous props that had been used were a pile of particle board on the floor of a shed, so the point of the new props was to make them last a few years. Oddly enough, the ballet teacher in question announced her retirement about four days before the recital. Life is just weird, isn't it?

Oh, and I also turned 18 yesterday. Is that enough of a life change for you?

Life Changing Events (Part 1)

2008-07-07T21:33:00.001-07:00

First, before the post really begins, I'd like to share a bit of trivia. Take a look at my profile. Notice at the end of my comments is a big loud AAAAAAY! That is known as wildcatting. It's a thing you do at the end of yells and when your class year is mentioned. I'm a freshman, so my wildcat is arms up in the air yelling AAAAAAY!

Last week was a big one for me. I don't mean that in a small, insignificant way. I mean that in a serious, big time, probable-life-changing sort of way. What happened? New Student conference.

New Student Conference is the "event" that starts off the career of a freshman at A&M. Basically it's a seminar designed to keep the average freshman informed of his opportunities. They tell you what kind of bus services, financial aid services, get-out-of-debt services, food service, keep-yourself-fit services, internet services, honors programs, academic advising, fish camp, intramural sports, diversity training(!) and a host of other things. It kinda reminds me of all the services that came with my computer. Lots of cool stuff, but very little of it applies to me. After all, I'm not your average freshman. I'm a freshman in the Corps.

Most of the time I spent listening politely to statements that sounded about as interesting as your average senator. The one big important thing I got done was signing up for the Corps officially, which included ROTC signup (Ross is going to hate me - I went Air Force) and getting fit for my uniforms.

Here I am in my uniform (minus brass and belt).

Yes, it is sideways, and yes, the quality is lousy.

With getting the uniform fitted came the fitting of the low quarters (uniform shoes) and standard army boots. Meaning I now get to wear them in. You have no idea how uncomfortable that is at times, but it's getting better.

Also at New Student Conference, I signed up for my first semester courses. Amazingly enough, I got EVERY SINGLE ONE I WANTED! That's a big deal, especially considering we were running kindof late from uniform fitting, and all the signups happen at the same time.

For the other big life changing event, stay tuned until later this week when it's official (more or less)

Introduction

2008-07-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Howdy! You may have noticed a couple of things about me. First, I am no longer Admiral Nelson. Why did I change? A couple of issues. First, there's a lot of Admiral Nelsons out there. Second, a lot of the places I frequent have a character limit on names, and Admiral Nelson was just too long. Third, I really like the postcards of Sandra Boynton. Take a look at them someday.

The next thing is a couple of announcements. First up, the issue of posting. I'm going to be a fish in the Corps this fall, and a chemical engineering fish at that! I may have trouble posting regularly, but I will certainly try to post once a week. Second, if you notice any Corps terms you don't recognize, feel free to ask (I might actually enlighten you). Third, I may eventually include links to other blogs, but for now the only one you need to watch is Petr's, since it has all the links you'll ever need. Fourth, just because I can find time to blog doesn't mean I'll be able to read everyone else's.

That's it for the announcements. Enjoy the show, and remember to turn off your cell phone.