New Beginnings

110 days remain until my journey with the military comes to an end. It all started in 2002 when I was in 10th grade and my high school was offering a program called the "Army Co-op" which allowed you to complete your basic training during the 2nd semester of that year, while being paid reservist pay, and getting 2 high school credits. Without that course my life would have taken a very different path.

Fast forwart to 2016, I've spent a total of 11 years with the military, with a 4 year break between reserve and regular force service where I attempted to go to university, I'm married and have a 5 year old and a 3 year old, and now my time in green is almost up.

I have to say that I'm excited to see what lies ahead for my familly and I, but I would be lying if I said there isn't also a sense of trepidation. I don't know what opportunities are going to be available on my release, I never did finish my university degree, I don't have experience in any civilian sphere outside of customer service, and I don't have many business connections outside of friends and family in the place I'm moving. The military is the only life I've known for so long that I don't know how well I will be recieved in the civilain world.

My saving grace is the unique experiences the military has allowed me to include in my resume, which I believe is strong and will be my best tool for helping me get my family in a stable and happy position when we move back home.

Some have insninuated that they view my return as a failure, that I'm slinking back with my tail between my legs, having failed to make it in the outside world. But I have never seen it this way. From my point of view I did what I had to ensure I would even be able to start a family, and I found that the "outside world" was far from supportive in that regard with the lack of family support that exists, so I'm returning to the only place it makes sense to go. Not because of failure, but to find success above and beyond what I've already achieved.

Halloween

Well the evening went well. It looked like it was going to be pretty miserable around 4 o'clock, it was very windy and rainy. But by 5:30 when we went out it was actually pretty warm. Still windy but warm so that was good.

Ilia's first venture out she was getting the hang of things, it was slow going and there were a few houses she wouldn't go to because they were too scary. We were probably only out for like 15-20 min before she wanted to go home. When we got home we dumped her meagre earnings on the floor, she got a few pieces then we put the rest away. At which point she looked at me and said "We have to go get more candy" so I dressed her up again and we headed back out on the town.

Our second trip was about 40 min and we ended up hitting quite a few houses before her feet got tired and I had to carry her home. The wind died down nicely though so it was a pretty great evening. Doesn't hurt that I got most of the afternoon off since everyone's going out to the field tomorrow.

Now to relax and maybe get some SWTOR in.

Update to my gaming life.

So I've been playing The Old Republic a lot over the past 3 days. Amber and I have been searching for a new MMO to play, we tried Uncharted Waters Online but it conflicted with so many different programs that keeping it running was almost too much to handle. I keep having WoW related dreams so I was getting pretty nostalgic for that but after a few minutes of playing our trials it became clear that we weren't going to get back into WoW. That's when Amber suggested TOR.

Now I was a massive follower of TOR for a long time, probably why I got burned out on it so fast. The creation date on my forum account for TOR is from the very first day you could sign up on the forums, that's how much I followed it. And I was in the beta for a long time before the game released. I don't know if it was burnout or the bugs or how much like WoW the game felt that made me quit, probably a combination of all of those things. But this time I don't feel the same way. It's been long enough that the game feels new again. I'm not into WoW anymore so the logic that "Well this game is so much like WoW I might as well just play that" doesn't work. And the story has been drawing me in. I feel like I did when I used to play KOTOR. Also a great many changes have been made to the game that make it feel more streamlined and less buggy. I don't know exactly what those changes are since I haven't read all the patch notes but it just feels smooth.

Naturally the main thing that drew me back into the game was the announcement of 12 v 12 space pvp. I just recently pledged to Star Citizen and I'm really looking forward to that game so it seems natural to try to get my dogfighting skills up in a game that I'm already drifting towards so it just seemed natural that I should play that again. I don't know how long I'm going to last before I get burned out on TOR again but I have plans for some alts that should keep up the enjoyment. I just made a Mirialan Jedi Sentinel who I'm going to have as a Dark Jedi whose motivation is power. It's going to be fun to actually be able to click on those conversation options that I feel I can't do on my Sage because it goes against his character. Yeah I'm lame that way.

Anywho that's what's been going on in my gaming life. May the Force be with you.

June hu?

   I can't believe June is already here. This year has been going so fast it's unbelievable. 

   Two main things going on in my life right now. First off and most important, is that my son is soon to be born. The current due date is 17 Jun and I'm totally psyched about it. It is impossible to tell, of course, when he will actually make his joyous appearance into the world but I can't wait to find out. 

   The second thing is that I'm attempting to transfer from the Armoured Corps in the Canadian Forces, over to RMS Clerk. This is a process that has been going on since Nov 2011 when I made my first application, which was rejected due to the fact that I needed 6 more months in the Crewman trade before I could apply again. About this this time last year I re-appled. Since then I've been doing on-the-job training in the Regimental Orderly room, where I have been for over a year. 

   There was a directive that came out saying that Occupational Transfers (OTs) would have their acceptances sent out in late April/early May, and rejections would be sent out in late may. Obviously as of last Friday I was rather miffed to find I hadn't received anything. I asked the Chief Clerk to look into it for me and she informed me that some OTs had been sent out but others were on hold. They didn't know why or how long it was going to be. So as you can imagine I'm pretty impressed with that. 

   Once mid-May came around I resigned myself to the idea that my OT was going to come back rejected, meaning I would go down to the tank troops again. I've been mentally preparing myself to receive that message for a few months now. So much so that I was almost excited to do so. However now knowing that I have to wait even longer with no answer either-way has made me question if this is still something I want to do or not. It is. And if the OT offer comes in, I will accept it. However I still won't loose much sleep if it does come back rejected. So time will tell. 

I have so much trouble getting organized. Its not like I don't have ideas on how to get organized I just don't have the motivation, focus, or organization.

I don't want to be in the military anymore. Maybe its just because I just got off leave but the military bullcrap just seems more and more annoying. I understand why we have to do what we do but I don't know how much longer I want to do it for. I'm not 20 anymore though. I have more responsibilities that mean I can't just leave or something. I'm hoping this OT changes things because I probably can't leave until 2016. But I'm definitely going to be looking into my options come 2016.

Technically I made a mistake getting the Nokia Lumia 900 right now given the future changes as far as Windows 8 but damn if it isn't a GREAT phone that I'm completely addicted to.