Making A Sammich

Have you ever wondered how to make a sammich? Fear not, I will show you how in this riveting informative video. Also, If anyone has any ideas for my next vlog they would be appreciated  Otherwise you can look forward to another awesome video of me making a sandwich.

Cyber Monday

I bought a new camera on Cyber Monday and I plan on using it to add more videos to my YouTube account. I will try to vlog some moments of my "journey" and post links on this page to make my blog more interesting. You can visit my YouTube channel by clicking this LINK. I took a short video of my cat Phantom to test out my new camera. Change your quality settings and watch in full screen 1080p HD for the best experience. Check back soon for more posts and new videos.

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I am going to my parents house today to spend time with my family and cheat on my diet. My mom asked me if I wanted her to make me healthy food for Thanksgiving and I was like "hell no". It's Thanksgiving, the one day of the year when you are supposed to stuff yourself. Anyway I am under my weight loss goal so I can afford one day of gluttony. It's kind of strange to think that if I do make it into the Air Force that this might be the last Thanksgiving I get to spend with my family for a while. That said, I am so eager to join. I am a little nervous about getting in though, I've heard that they aren't recruiting very many people now and in order to get in you have to be very well qualified. I hope I do really well on my ASVAB and pass my physical exam. I am going to breathe a big sigh of relief after I get through MEPS and into the delayed enlistment program.I hope to know whether or not I am going to be able to join the Air Force sometime early 2013.

New To Blogging

I am going to try to write a new post once a week to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing. I might post more often if I have something interesting to tell you otherwise they might become less frequent, we will have to see how things go.

Cue "Gonna Fly Now"

That brings me to today at 3AM November 18, 2012. My goal is to weigh 190 lbs by the end of the year, the sooner the better. I have stopped drinking soda, and eating fast food, and I have been watching portions closely. I got a membership to a gym near my apartment and I run at least 3 miles four days a week. This is by far my most serious attempt at weight loss, I am trying to lose weight as quickly as is safe. I started near 230 lbs, today I weigh 197 lbs. I believe I am easily in reach of my goal however I am not going to slow down until I pass my MEPS physical.

First Contact

Now that I have decided to join the Air Force where do I start? Well its 2012 so I would try the internet first. There are endless websites dedicated to providing information about the Air Force. I spent days researching every possible aspect of joining the Air Force, from MEPS to BMT, tech school, permanent duty assignments, jobs, benefits everything I could think of. After reading the basic requirements to join I realized I weighed to much to join. I am 5' 11" and the maximum weight to join is 197 lbs, at that time I was pushing 230 lbs. My first step to joining was to start losing weight to prove I was serious. After I lost around 10 lbs I called my local recruiter I told him over the phone that I knew I weighed to much but I wanted to get the ball rolling, so he asked if I was able to meet with him later that day and I did. When I arrived at his office he was busy with someone else so he had me go into a small room with a computer in it to take a practice ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) that took about 30 minutes and when I was done he wrote down my score and told me that I would have no problem taking the actual ASVAB. He then took my height and weight on a scale in that same small room with the computer. We then went back to his office and talked about joining the Air Force, he wrote down my contact information and told me to call him back when I had lost the weight. 197 lbs is the maximum for my height but he wanted me to be 185-190.

Beginning My Journey

My journey to become an american airman started many years ago, as long ago as I can remember. I spent the early years of my life living with my mother and sister at my grandparents house in Michigan while my dad served in the army. Growing up in the 90's I watched the Power Rangers fight Evil Rita to save the planet. I dressed up as a power ranger for Halloween ready to defeat the putty patrol. I have always wanted to be a superhero, there to help others in their time of need. The turning point happened when I was 11 years old, an impressionable age near the end of being a "little kid". I was in the 6th grade in art class at South Elementary School in Danville Indiana. The tardy bell rang but our teacher wasn't there yet, none of my classmates seemed to mind as they talked to there friends. After several minutes our teacher entered the room, something was wrong with her, her eyes were puffy like she had been crying and she didn't give us anything to do, we just worked on homework for other classes all period. The rest of the day 6th graders were doing ISTEP testing (Indiana Statewide Testing For Educational Progress). I noticed that every teacher I had that day seemed sad and spent a lot of time on the phone and computer. Throughout the school day they kept calling over the PA for students whose parents were there to pick them up, it seemed like by the end of the day only half of my class was still there. The dismissal bell rang and we went out to our school buses, as I got on my bus I remember someone telling everyone else to be quiet, the radio was on and they were listing to news reports. After listening myself I understood why all my teachers were sad and why so many parents had picked there children up early, the date was September 11, 2001. It turns out that my school administration decided that if they told the students what was going on it would negativity affect our ISTEP scores, I'm not sure they understood the impact that day would have on the world. My parents took me and my sister to visit New York City for the first time less than two months after 9/11, its a shame that my only trip to such a beautiful city was during such a dark time. So there I am almost 12 years old standing in lower Manhattan of a cold fall day in 2001, I've included a link to our home move of that day.

As I got older I decided I wanted to defend my country, I wanted to join the military. However my parents preferred I go to college, I have never been very fond of school but they insisted that I at least go for one year. Not wanting to upset my parents I enrolled in community college, and I hated it. I struggled through some classes taking several semesters off, not sure of what I wanted to do with my life. When I was 20 years old I moved out into an apartment with a friend of mine. After going to college on and off for five years I decided I was going to return to my dream of joining the military. Fighting on the front lines really isn't something I want to do so that kind of eliminates the Army and Marines, and I'm not interested in spending months at a time trapped on a ship so there goes the Navy. That leaves the Air Force and that's fine by me, I have always loved airplanes I have worked at Indianapolis International Airport for over four years and the best part of my job is getting to work on airplanes. So I want to join the United States Air Force. I created this blog as a record of my journey, wish me luck...