Sitting Waiting Wishing / The Trent Report

Trent has passed the half way point of his time in Iraq. I think if he ends up staying an extra week until his replacement arrives, this is still true, but I could be off by a day or two.

In the last week, job assignment season has kicked in full force. Trent had to put in his "dream sheet" after looking at the "shopping list" last fall. New jobs pop up from time to time of course and then, if interested, you just alter your dream sheet. Early this month the Commander's List (O-5) of job assignments went up. A couple of weeks went by to allow those individuals to say yes, to choose to retire, etc. and now placing the Lt. Commanders (o-4s) is in full force. Late last week, Trent e-mailed me with a list of new job codes that were up. He then talked with his program director and later to his detailer. The fun part of this is getting to hear from Trent even more often. Now, however, comes the sitting waiting and wishing. That is a great Jack Johnson song by the way. Trent has updated his dream sheet for the last time, and we should know in a week give or take where we are headed this summer. We feel fairly confident that we have a good idea what job Trent is getting, but since nothing is final until it is final, I won't speculate on the blog.

Also on the sitting, waiting wishing note, February is almost over, and I still haven't received my two copies of the Naval Law Review. That is right. This is the month in which Trent's paper is supposed to be published, and they are sending us two copies. I have read the paper several times, but I would really like to see the final edit on it. I am not surprised that it is a little slow, but I still wait for it every day.

On a final Trent Report related note, Trent's replacement has been named. I am admittedly biased, but I think it reflects well on Trent that his replacement comes from the Coast Guard. The fact that Trent is in the Coast Guard is not why he is there. He works for CLAMO (the Army's Center of Law and Military Operations) right now, and he is who they got when they asked CLAMO for someone. CLAMO doesn't have someone of the same rank available to replace Trent, because that individual will be in Afghanistan. Instead of looking elsewhere in the Army JAG Corp, they are replacing him with another member of the Coast Guard. There could be several practical reasons for this including the Coast Guard's own desire to be involved with Multi National Forces Iraq. I, however, choose to think that it does, in part, reflect well on the job Trent is doing.

Six more weeks and change.

A 24 Update

AS BEFORE, IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF 24 AND DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DON'T READ THE FOLLOWING.



A sincere congratulations goes out to all of you who thought that rotten FBI guy on 24 (I think his name is Sean, but I honestly am not sure) was not alone but working with his girlfriend/mistress. I thought of you all as I watched last night and repeatedly told myself how smart you all are. Sorry, there was no one else around to tell at that hour. Myself is truly impressed at your ability to figure this out though. When they went into the mainframe room to crash the server, I knew he was going to do her in.

Now we are onto round 2 of this season's 24. That certainly is keeping with the old style where they have a break in the middle and the problem changes focus. So smarty pants, what is going to happen next?

By the way, I thought Janeane Garafulo's (Janice's) purple tights were very ugly in last night's episode. Just saying.

How Did I Miss This?

While driving the kids to the bus stop today, Jon asked me what the ground hog decided about Spring. It is raining today. The rain was snow for about 1.2 minutes. Anyhow, I told Jon the ground hog saw his shadow and the rest. Ashley then told me about this story. I had to come back and google it to see if it was true. I laughed so hard. I feel somewhat vindicated in my Ground Hog's Day theories now.

A few thoughts on 24

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF 24 AND YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED, DON'T CONTINUE TO READ.


So, the guy at the FBI who turned out to be the mole/helping the bad guys was so obvious that I thought it would be someone else. He was so obvious that all he needed was a mustache to twirl and Jon's evil laugh. I guess making him so obvious was the way of making him not obvious? There is, of course, the chance that they will pull a season 1 again in which Nina was the ultimate insider but someone else was shown as an insider much earlier in the season/day.

I have two words for what made last night's episode though, Aaron Pierce!! Awesome.

Crime and Punishment

I have been wanting to rant about this for a while, so I know it is no longer particularly timely. I am sure my handful of readers will bear with me. Michael Phelps (you know that major star of the 2008 Summer Games. Super Swimming Olympian) was recently caught in a picture smoking marijuana at a party. He has since admitted to doing it, is apologizing all over the place and I'm sure you know the rest. What absolutely amazes me is the number of people and articles I have heard/read over the subsequent week or so talking about how Michael Phelp's punishment (at this point it amounts to a 3 month suspension from USA Swimming after which he will still be able to compete in the world championships and Kellogg's dropping his contract as their spokesperson) is overly harsh considering what happened. I have heard everyone from NPR's Juan Williams to Charles Krauthammer to various sports writers express that Michael Phelps is a kid who made a dumb mistake and that he is being overly punished.

First of all, Michael Phelps is an adult. A young one yes, but an adult all the same. Furthermore, 8 people have been arrested in connection with this whole thing. So far, there have been no criminal charges for Michael Phelps. I will admit I don't know if there should be, but it seems that anyone else with any connection to this is facing worse. He broke the law, a 3 month suspension doesn't seem overly harsh to me. The loss of his Kellogg's contract makes perfect business sense. They've reaped most of what they would get from his spokesman role anyhow. With the economy like it is, he gave them a perfect excuse to sever the contract. As for the argument that people have made that they don't think breakfast cereal has a reputation to maintain, try telling that to moms who have to explain to their children why what Michael Phelps did was stupid even though he is a major swimming star etc. etc.

That leads me to my biggest rant. I read a piece by a Yahoo sportswriter (I can't find the piece now, sorry) that said to parents to not be angry with Michael Phelps but to be angry they fell for the perfect sport star stereotype. I think the author misses the boat here. I don't think Michael Phelps is perfect. I do think, however, that it is naive to think Michael Phelps isn't taking a certain role upon himself when he decides to represent the United States in the Olympics and to be a major player in international sports. Trent has to be careful about what he does when in uniform, because his actions in uniform reflect upon the Coast Guard. When we worked at Boy Scout camp, our director always reminded us to behave properly when on road trips, because what we did reflected on the Boy Scouts. That was the uniform we had on. When a person in a Boy Scout shirt litters in Yellowstone National Park, it reflects on the entire organization. That is just how it is. Michael Phelps is not an idiot. Most sports stars know what it means to be a sports star, and they benefit from it in the form of often lucrative contracts as spokesperson for various companies. Why then, if the star does something stupid (and illegal) like smoke pot at a party, does it follow that losing that lucrative contract is overly harsh?

Finally, when I was doing my student teaching etc., I debated with far too many 14 year olds about why smoking pot was a very bad idea even though it isn't addictive. Michael Phelps sets a terrible example given that he is so amazing at what he does. It says, you can do this and still be amazing. The thing is that many young kids don't get to amazing if they start out with that. They get stuck in a world of not caring at all, which certainly doesn't lead to amazing.

I am not out for blood here. I don't think Michael Phelps should never swim again, but I certainly don't think he is being overly punished. Sheesh.

Cops and Robbers

I am trying to decide whether or not I should be worried about Jon. Saturday, he spent most of they day dressed up as Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. He often chooses to be the bad guy. He dresses up as Dr. Octopus as often as he dresses up as Spiderman. He tolerates when his sisters watch Cinderella because of Lucifer the cat. You get the idea. Today, he was playing with his planet heroes. The planet heroes were in disarray on the shelf, and the bad guys were all neatly circled on the floor planning their evil plan to take over the solar system. In the end, one of the planet heroes knocked them all down though, so that is good right?

Did I mention he has an evil laugh for when he plays the bad guy?

The Reaches of Duct Tape

So here I am about to close up the computer and get some work done. Sammy is playing near by and points out the cut in the quilt on our bed. Ashley had been working on a project in here around Christmas and had missed with the scissors and cut a 2 inch cut into the quilt on our bed. We need to replace and have needed to for a bit, but I haven't found what I want yet. I was still upset, because Ashley didn't tell me. When I found it on my own, she let me get upset with Jon, who told me Ashley did it and then decided, for some unknown reason, to tell me he did it and to take the mommy wrath. That is all beside the point though.

Sammy was looking at it and informed me that she could fix it. O.k. I said. "I can fix it with duck tape," she added. This is funny anyhow, but how on earth does Sammy know about duct tape?

Layoffs

My Dad e-mailed this story to me yesterday. Apparently, some of the powers that be at Disney are considering doing a Jonas Brother show minus one Jonas. I asked Ashley about this and got the response I think will be typical if Disney actually makes this decision. Ashley said, "If they do that, I will MAKE them bring him back. They have to have ALL of the Jonas Brothers." Ashley is 8. I can only imagine what some of the more ardent fans will say. Disney, stop the craziness!

6 More Weeks of Winter

I made my feelings about Ground Hog's Day known last year. Phil saw his shadow again this year, or at least the people gathered around his hole determined that he did see his shadow. Therefore, six more weeks of winter. I could have told you that with a quick trip to www.weather.com. Trent says he can't believe I am disrespecting the holiday of rodentus subterraneous (a term I am sure he made up himself). Alas, I am afraid I am a bit of a bah humbug when it comes to Ground Hog's Day.