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djdroogie
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Name: David
Country: United States
State: South Carolina
Metro: Charleston
Birthday: 1/1/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Drums, DJ'ing, Breakdancing, Snowboarding, World Travel, Reading, Submarines, New Zealand, Racquetball, Volleyball, Triathlons, 7|22, Improv Comedy, Kempo (Martial Arts)
Occupation: Military
Industry: Engineering
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  droogiegtxi
Member Since:
4/25/2005
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| Moving my blog world to http://web.mac.com/djdroogie -- I'm still working on it so I'd appreciate any suggestions - good bye Xanga! | | |
| For all who are interested, in this issue are the following topics:
1) Nuclear Power School
2) My Girl
3) The Spiritual Side of Things
4) The new MacBook
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1) Nuclear Power School
24 + 3 weeks of Nuclear Power School. Over. The feeling of relief intermingled with ecstasy is simply indescribable.
Simply put, I had to fall off the face of the earth just to keep up with studies in the past 6 or more weeks. I know I neglected to keep up with a lot of friends (at the same time, the door does swing both ways!) as a result, so if that's you and you're reading this, take this blog as an informal apology.
At this point I have no desire to opine about what I would consider the horrors of higher education and how it so easily consumes the zealous student and robs him of a precious balance in his life - so I won't, however tempting it may be.
So rather, I'd like to briefly focus on the positive in a roundabout way. Often times at Power School I did feel overwhelmed - doing poorly on a test often resulted in a feeling of inadequacy and a type impending doom about my future career. However, the last few days, when all my studies in nuclear power seemed to glue together and make more cohesive sense, I began to feel somewhat ecstatic about the whole venture. An excitement began to set it that I had not felt before, and I attacked my studies with a renewed vigor, resulting in a competitive score on the Comprehensive Final Exam (I'll spare the details).
And this feeling has not completely abated either. Although I am currently on two weeks of leave, I eagerly await returning to Charleston to start the next 24 weeks of training at the Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU) located at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, SC. Training begins on July 3rd, 2006 which involves less classroom work and more hands on training on a Moored Training Ship (MTS) along the Cooper River. On board the MTS's are real, live nuclear reactors that we will be learning how to operate. This is big news for those just finishing power school since running a real reactor is essentially the culmination of the theoretical training we had just received.
What pains me is the restriction on talking about the specifics of what we learn due to its confidential nature. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that no one outside of my little bubble of Navy nuke friends would care to read or discuss the specifics anyway, so maybe at the end of the day, that's not such a bad thing :). Rest assured I will continue to post my nuclear saga to the extent that I can online. I simply can't wait for the challenge to continue - BRING IT, haha!!!
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2) My Girl
I'd like to take a moment to talk about the new little homslice in my life because she continues to become a more integral part of my life with each passing day. By no means do I mean to reveal the details of our relationship, but rather I'd like to quench the curiosity of those who may be asking.
I met Rachel for the first time in early April of this year when I drove to Atlanta to check out a concert at the Roxy with some friends. I wasn't exactly looking to date anyone, but rarely do we plan these type of things. Long story short, things took off fairly quickly, and virtually every spare second that I had off from Power School was spent making the 4 hour and 30 minute drive to Atlanta to see her or talk to her on the phone. A lot of our conversations revolved around the eagerness for my school to end so we'd have more time to spend around each other, so needless to say, that was yet another huge reason why I was glad for school to end. Prototype will allow me a 'slightly' more relaxed schedule relative to power school, so the future looks more promising from a time management standpoint.
We've had a handful of challenges thrown our way for sure on top of the distance from each other and the time leech of school. We've had to make quite a leap of faith and decide whether her finding an apartment and a school to attend here in Charleston was the best thing for us to do after her current schooling was out. Long story short, I rationalized the move by coming to the realization that it was either make the move or cut the relationship off completely. I'm not one to live with regret or looming "what ifs" over my head for the rest of my life, so I decided to go all in with the relationship and give it everything I got and let the rest play out as it will.
I'm truly excited to see where this is going to go. Rachel is a lil' firecracker and being with her and getting to know here is and has been a wild ride, to say the least. For my second week of leave, we're going on a road trip to Pensacola, ATL, and Myrtle Beach in a few days with a bunch of friends. Let the good times RRROLLLLL!!
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3) The Spiritual Side of Things
I don't have as much to write about here of much substance, so I won't. School always takes times away from what is important to me, and setting time aside to focus on spiritual issues is no exception. Just like any relationship, getting to know God more intimately requires focus, time, and work, none of which I have given in the recent past as a result of the power school clampdown. To be completely honest, a certain complacency about that has set in that I struggle with on a daily basis. The community simply isn't there anymore. More on this at a later time.
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4) The new MacBook
Ironically enough, the reason I'm running out of time on this post is because I am running out of batteries on the MacBook that I just bought today! If you haven't given Macs a decent spin, you should. I've been a hardcore PC user for the longest time and the Mac onslaught simply became too strong to ignore, so I brokedown and purchased one at the Galleria today for my graduation present to myself. The whole package is fascinating from start to finish. Long story short, Macs just work, and they work well. I look forward to exploring my new little for quite some time and effortlessly updating my blog on my new Mac from free wireless hotspots that I like to pimp out at like at Atlanta Bread Company and Panera Bread, etc.
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Well, in conclusion, that's been my world in a nutshell. Yes, this has been somewhat of a catchup for the lack of substance in the past few months, but I hope it compensates somewhat.
Until next time, Much Love err'one. | | |
| A cool slideshow I put together in case anyone doesn't MySpace.com and hasn't seen my profile (and who doesn't do MySpace these days? Pshh... hehe...)
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| We looked for a new place to live today but didn't really settle on anything. Kind of bummed about that. Let the hunt continue. I would really like to enjoy the rest of the year in a pimped out place downown (Charleston).
Less than 4 weeks of Power School left. This is going to be tough. It's getting really hard to concentrate... But tonight I still decided to say F the man and went to see the Riverdogs v. Gnats at Ripley Stadium downtown. I found out my roommate is a lot cooler than I thought, hehe. I guess that's what happens when you hang out with people you don't know that well.
I'm also going to Charlotte with some buddies this weekend. I really shouldn't, given the workload that I have, but I guess I'm going to shoot myself in the foot and go - wow, it's tough keeping your word, imagine that. But this is going to be interesting... But if I'm going to go, might as well make it worth it!
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| Well I thought it interesting to see a slightly different side of Iraq.
Just something to think about.
We usually don't see these kinds
of photos make the news.
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