Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Good Morning, I'm Back!

Good Morning Blogging World! Yup, It's me, I'm back, have been for a few days now, but just haven't gotten around to posting. Anyways, I don't got much time right now, either, but I figured I better post anyway. :P So, Hi everybody, it's been a long 2 months, I'm sure it seemed longer for me than to ya'll, but anyways, I'm home for a week, I'll be leaving for A school down in Yorktown, Virginia on sunday, but I'll still be able to get online every now and then while there, so I'll be seeing ya'll around!

~AKCameraGuy~

Friday, February 10, 2006

Meg here, another letter from Micah. It's shorter this time, but he explains why:

Well I only got a few minutes to write this. I just got off watch and so I've got a little time before I got to go to remedial swim. So anyways, good news, KILO COMPANY EARNED OUR COLORS!!! Sunday afternoon we were presented our colors. Totally rocks. At this moment, KILO 173 is the only company in the regiment that has their colors. Supposedly, that means we're the best company here! If you want to see what our colors look like, look up Nautical flags and look for KILO, it will be yellow and blue. Rock on. Anyways, I'm running out of time. I'll talk to you later.

Micah

If you would like to see his company's colors, the link is below.

KILO Company Colors

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Hi everyone, Meg here. Once again, it's a letter from Micah. It's actually quite a bit longer this time, surprisingly. So.. here it is!

26 Jan 06

The time is actually passing rather quickly. A lot has happened in the last few days. On Sunday night, our Company, KILO, and our sister company, LIMA, started standing watches. We used to get 8 hours of straight sleep for teh first 2 weeks, but from the 3rd week on, we have to stand watch 6 days a week. The watches are an hour long, but we are woken up 1 hour before and have to be at the post a 1/2 hour before our watch. So we end up losing 2 hours of sleep.

Then, for those of us that failed the swin test, we are woken up at 0430 for remedial swim. So I have only been getting 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Needless to say, I'm tired. (Btw, swim started monday morning.) Anyways, enough of that except to say that there are a few good things about remedial swim:

ONE: I don't get woken up by bright lights and a CC yelling his head off.

TWO: I don't get the morning IT sessions, which is what happens if the company was all jacked up the night before and the CCs are in a bad mood.. which is more often than not.

THREE: I can send letters any day I want, while the rest of the company has to wait to send letters on Sunday. The mail drop box is behind the barracks, so on the way to swim at 0500, I run about 50 feet out of the way and drop the in. (Big no-no) Luckily, all the CCs are asleep at 0500, and the only other people up are the other recruits heading to swim, and they wouldn't bust me even if they did happen to see me. So yeah, waking up early for swim ain't all that bad.

Anyways, the present. I'm right now sitting on the hospital ward bed, in one of the hospital PJs and robe. First time I've ever had to stay overnight in a hospital. With me is Anthony Shettle, who is also from KILO, and Thomas, who is from INDIA company. He'll be leaving this place next Friday. He's done his 7 weeks and now he's getting out.. lucky dog!

Why am I here, being treated like a king, getting hours of sleep? Oh yeah, I jsut got my 4 wisdom teeth pulled. As did the other guys. Then I'll be on green belt for the next 2-3 days. No up-down-out-in, rowers, squats, or piece its!!! I'm so happy!

~Micah~

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Hi everyone, Meg here. Another shorter letter Micah wrote:

22 Jan 06

Right now, I'm writing because I won't have time after churhc. Divine hours are from 8:00-1300. Church is from 8:15-1000. I'll have about 2:30 hours after church. I tell you what, 2 1/2 hours goes by quick! Iron uniforms, polish our boondockers (boots), squad bag, maintenence, all that. Boom! Hours gone! LOL! Last week I ended up only having 5 minutes to write a letter home, which is why I'm writing to you now.. on this paper.. the ONLY paper I have in my Bible. LOL Anyways, Church is about to end, I'll try to write again after I get back to the squad bay.

Micah

(note, this was written before the last letter i posted. thanks)
Hi Everyone, Meg here. As promised, here is a letter from Micah:

22 Jan 06

Well, I got some time here, about an hour to write you and to home. Anyway, let I'll tell you a little about life here. We get up everday at 6:00, jump out of the rack, into our gofasters (running shoes) and get in line. We have less than 30 seconds to do that. Needless to say, we all sleep with socks on. We usually get 20 minutes to shower, shave, all that. There are 42 of us in KILO Company. Which includes 6 females. So, 36 guys in my squad bay. Many of us don't shower for days. Deodorant does wonders. LOL! Then we line up for chow. Anyways, after morning chow we usually have class.

I'll tell you right now, if I get reverted, it'll be for falling asleep in class. You're only allowed to fall asleep once, the 2nd time, and you go back a week in training. I fell asleep once, so I got a warning, and if I fall asleep again, I'll be graduating on the 10th instead of the 3rd. Hopefully that won't happen. Anyway. Afternoon chow is usually around 12:30. Today it is at 12:50. We live for chow and divine hours. Chow means 20 minutes that we can sit, eat good food, and not have the CC's breathing down our necks. And divine hours are 5 hours without the CC's. The CC's are our Company Commanders. We have 3 CC's: 2 guys and 1 girl. The woman is the LCC, the lead Company Commander. She is the boss.

Micah

And there you have it folks! He says hi and all that good stuff. I'll post the second letter in just a second. ~Meg

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Alright everyone! Micah wrote back home to Bethel:

Hey Ya'll,
I've got less than 5 min to write,
I'll have to write again next week,
I'll have more time then.
Love ya'll
Micah
P.S. Love ya mom.

So I have the address now. If you would like to write him, then please email me and I'll get the information to you.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him.

Meg

Monday, January 16, 2006

Contact from our coastie! Got an email from Sister Connie saying that Micah had called home for 1 minute on Saturday. He has arrived safely, is getting settled in, and people should start getting letters soon.

I'm sure he's having the time of his life. I know he'll be the best in his unit and will make us all proud!

Meg

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Hi ya'll. Micah has arrived in Cape May by now. I said the last goodbye to him at 7:30 this morning before he got on the last connecting flight. :( Yeah. I cried. I hate goodbyes. But he is excited, like a kid on Christmas morning. But please remember to keep him in your prayers.. these first couple of days especially.

Gracie, ya, he'll have a lot of catching up to do when he gets back. Actually though, he'll only be back for about three weeks before he'll be going to A-School. (that's the name of the school, it's for extra training) He'll be there for.... 2 more months I believe. Then he'll FINALLY be settling down in Anchorage.

Jessa, actually, he has to be the one to iniate contact. So if ya'll did send him letters, he wouldn't be able to get them. But email me your adress and I'll send it to him in his next letter, that way he can write you.

Meg

Monday, January 09, 2006

Hi Ya'll! Micah called and I'm on the phone with him right now. He says hi! He is now offically a member of the US Coast Guard! *claps* Oh! On active duty (he points out)! He'll be flying out for good at 9:27 pm (Alaska Time). So as of 12:27 Tuesday Morning January 10, 2006 (my time) we will see the last of Micah...... at least for a while... ok, now he's informing me that he is in fact going to Chicago and Philadelphia and somewhere else.

Sorry Jenna, but he can't receive any packages or gifts or food of any kind.

Lae, he says thanks! He KNEW you had them!

Gracie, he says hi! sorry for not talking to you more.

Bye again.

Meg

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Meg Here

Hi ya'll... Meg here.

Yeah, Micah's gone. Nooo!!! Come back!!! :( Man, I'm gonna miss him. Won't we all? But yeah, he'll be writing letters often and I'll be putting updates on here from him. Blog-by-mail.. how cool is that?!

Just wanted to let ya'll know what's going on. Later.

Meg

P.S- Oh yeah, if anyone has anything they want to say to him while he's at boot camp, just put it on the comments with intrustions to send the message to Micah and I'll include it in one of my letters.

Back and Gone Again...

Well ya'll, I'm back from vacation, but not for long, my plane to Boot Camp leaves in three hours. So ya, this is my good-bye, so-long, see ya'll later, have fun while I'm gone. I'll miss the blogging world while I'm gone. I'll be gone for two months, be back in march for 2 weeks. in the mean time.. I'll be posting via letter through Meg. So anyways. Have fun ya'll, I'll miss ya, see ya'll in two months!

~Micah~

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Wow... All nighter..

Yup, I just pulled an all-Nighter.. It's 9:30am, and I'm just about to go home.. been working on some video projects.. for our Christmas program... which starts at 1:30.. anyways.. I'm gonna go home now.. maybe get a couple hours of sleep before I gotta wake up again.. and this doesn't beat my previous record of straight video editing hours... I think that was 18 hours.. maybe 16.. I'll have to check.. this was only about 12-14.. with a few hours break in there.. so ya.. anyways..
I'm leaving in 22 hours.. about.. me and Nate heading down to MT. yippee.. goodnight.. :P

~AKCameraGuy~

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Bill of NON-rights

Hey, here's a quick post. For those who are on Bro.Clarkson's mailing list, you've already seen this, but I thought I'd share it with everybody! It rocks!
~AKCameraGuy~

We The People of the
United States
The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Aye from GA, however it was actually written by Lewis Napper in 1993. Napper sent it to Kaye, who loved it and sent it to many of his constituents. This guy should run for President one day...
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberals. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness which, by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from!
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!
If you agree, share this with a friend. No, you don't have to, and nothing tragic will befall you if you don't. I just think it's about time common sense is allowed to flourish.
SOME RAMBLINGS of a RETIRED MIND

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Finally, Ladies and Gents... THE SNOWBOARD!!!

Here it is, here it is!! I found my card reader a few days ago, and here are the pictures!!
IMG_5811
IMG_5809
Now ain't that sweet!
Well, that's all I got time for now, I'll catch ya'll later!!

~AKCameraGuy~

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Where's my card reader?!?!

I lost it!!! I lost it!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! NNOOOOO!!!! WHERE IS IT!?!?!? phooey...
I lost my card reader.. which is why I haven't posted any pictures of my board yet... flip...
Oh well.. we're in the middle of a heat wave right now... temp's up in the high 20's.. dumped a bunch of snow on us again sunday and monday. Lots and lots of snow, yippee! more snow to go snowboarding!! That I can't post pictures of because I LOST MY CARD READER!! .. argh...
Well, I gotta go, sorry it short, I'll talk to ya'll later...

~AKCameraGuy~

Monday, November 28, 2005

I'm in LOVE!!!!!!!!!

Ah yes, you read right, I have fallen in love... someone that'll be with me on the well-worn trails, or when I feel I need to be original.. be with me through thick and thin.. will carry me on those cold days.. one who will be held by my side as I tread the days of winter... ah yes.. I love my snowboard... what?.. snowboards aren't someones?!?! They're someTHINGS!?!?! but.. but.. I'm gonna ask it.. oh wait.. it never answers me.. wha.. they can't talk?! They can't even hear!?!? Quick, call 911!! There aren't any ER snowboard doctors!? phooey.. my poor board.. oh well.. can I still kiss it??... :P Yeah, I got a new snowboard. Got it saturday. It's a Lamar Mission, 154cm. It's black and blue, and with my gray/blue/black bindings, it looks totally awesome! I'll be posting pictures tomorrow. :)
Alrighty, NEWS: The Boyz are going to Montana on the 19th!! (except Matt, he'll be going on the 28th) We'll be down there for over 2 weeks! Hey Pauly!! Are you gonna be able to get any time off from work around New Years? We'll be leaving on the 5th. Hope we'll get to spend a little time with ya. It'd be a bummer if I traveled all that way and don't even see ya, especially since I probably won't get to be at BTI..
Anyways, I gotta go, Happy Holidays everybody!!

~AKCameraGuy~

Thursday, November 17, 2005

ok.. today... cold..

Ya, it's been cold here... really cold, like, 40mph NNE wind, standing temp 5-10 F, windchill -20 F. br. cold. It was a blizzard last night, was snowing a little bit, and blowing a lot! lol.. woke up this morning to 1-2 foot drifts in all the wrong places.. like on the elementary school's boardwalks... ugh.. 9:00 found me halfway through a 2oft long drift about 2ft deep. I figured out that shoveling a a 3ft wide path through that would require me to move 120 cubic feet of snow, at about 1/2 cu.ft per shovelfull.. lifting at least 240 times. lol.. ya.. that was only one.. of 3.. lol.. it's a good workout if nothing else! lol. I'm crazy.. :P Anyways, now I"m sitting here getting fat, I've eaten a dozen Hershey's Hugs since I sat down to write this. :P lol. just ate another one.. lol. Well, I think that's about it..
Oh ya, podcasting.. lemme explain. Let's see.. my postcast feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Akcameraguy
to get that, use a podcast reader.. such as iTunes or FireAnt. If you don't have iTunes, you're a loser and you need to get it. Period. Sorry, but I gotta tell the truth. lol. Just type in the feed url, and !poof! you'll automatically get all audio and video from the podcast. Now, in the case of blogs-turned-podcast there'll also be text that you might like to read. In that case it might be better to use FireAnt. Over on my sidebar I have the 'Get FireAnt' link, so go ahead and click that, get it, install it, and then click on the green '+' and type in the feed url. Once again !poof! you will automatically get the audio/video AND the text. yeeha.. Also with fireant, you can type in a blog address, and it will give you the feed for it(all blogs automatically have a feed) and you'll automatically get the blog updates, altough unless the blog is set up for podcasting, you'll still have to manually download the media. FireAnt tells you which blog has something new, so don't gotta go check it all the time. Have fun!
Alrighty, for those blogger who have a feedburner feed, go to your blog template, and right at the beginning where it says "<$BlogMetaData$>" type
(link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="AKCameraGuy Podcast" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Akcameraguy" /)
(replace the () with <> or it won't work)putting your info in at the right places.. like the title and href. That way if somebody just types in your blog url one of the options that come up in FireAnt will be your podcast feed.
Alrighty, that's it for now, I'll talk to ya'll later!!

~AKCameraGuy~

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Alrighty, Matt won!

Yup Yup, Matt won his fight, and from what I hear from everyone that was there (half the fire department) the ref stopped the fight because the other guy was getting the bloody snot beat outta him.. literally. I feel sorry for the guy, I mean, I'm glad Matt won, but feel sorry that the other guy had to fight him.. anyways..
Other news... Alrighty, ya Jenna, I leave on Jan.2, graduating the first friday of March, Cape May- NJ. That'd be cool if'n ya'll could make it! That would rock. Anybody else wanna come? The more the merrier! Anyways, I gotta go, gotta get back to work! Talk to ya'll later!!

~AKCameraGuy~

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Alrighty.. Long time no post..

Alrighty.. where to start.. lots has happened since the last time I posted... Well anyways, everythings frozen here, it's been below freezing for over a week now, and monday it dropped to -11, with a -35 windchill!! Brrr.. it was cold. Yesterday it warmed up to about 0, and today is about +10.. not sure what the windchill is.. got a pretty good wind out there. Monday actually was a record setting low, Nov.7 has not been that cold since 1956 at -8 degrees. Did I hear someone say something about global warming?!? Hhmmm.. must be going crazy.. :P lol.
Oh Ya!! I got the Relient K Christmas CD today! It finally got hear! I love Christmas music.. lol.
Also, Matt has his first AFC fight today. Hopefully he'll win, and not get the snot beat outta him. Next time I post I'll tell ya'll how he did.
Ok, final news for now.. I've finally got confirmed ship dates!!! I'm leaving on Jan.2 for Boot Camp, Graduating beginning of March, then going to MST A School on March 20! About time!! lol... Alrighty, so, I'll see ya'll later,

~AKCameraGuy~

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Relient K Christmas Music!!

Here's a sample of Relient K's Christmas music.. RelientK_DeckTheHalls_64kbps ...don't ask me how I got it.. lol..