LOVE IT

Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet" - An overall mediocre text I thought, because it was all pretty obvious stuff. However certain portions had unique perspective. I frequently recall this quote while at work:

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

Rickover's nuclear knife carves my heart out on a daily basis. The funny thing is, it is not nuclear power, or submarining that deepens my "joy bowl." It is the daily interactions with over 120 people on board. There are at LEAST 30-40 people that you are forced to interact with on any given day. Out of that 35, how many are having a good day? Let's say 30. Those 5 that are having a bad day, steady state, are they cool or not? I would say 3 would be joe blow's, 1 would a generally positive person, and the fifth... Well, the fifth would be some bitter ass mofo. And this is being generous. Especially in port, and in any sort of upkeep, with poop hitting the fan, THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

The point is, that submarining is a people business, not just one of reactor safety, and approach and attack. I think many people forget that. Now, chicken or egg? Who was the first person to have a bad submarine day? I would probably say Rickover, who according to historical records administered the first nuclear spanking. And then, due to the nature of the average person to pass on the ass-chewing, whoever got spanked with Rickover's control rod shaped beat stick, subsequently chewed ass at the next level down. Decades later, we have bitter whiners everywhere. This is a mere identification of said problem, and does not come close to providing due diligence on the subject.

MOVING ON.

So we had a quick underway, which was fun. Doc prophetically warned the crew to take their vitamins and 'airborne' (a sham, I think), as everyone will catch a cold. I scoffed. A week later, I coughed. I quickly caught a cold, and was miserable for the last week of the underway, and at least a week into port. The cold was particularly pernicious because all the JO's slept about 3 hrs a night for a week straight due to all this watch manning biznazz.

I should be getting my EOOW/EDO board soon, after months of riling by the crew. Once qualified EOOW/EDO, I can stand back aft and receive more riling from the crew, for finally qualifying. Such is submarine life.

On a related note, we all got the "Order of the Ditch" certificate for crossing the Panama Canal. WOOT!

I've done my quick schpiel (sp?) on work life. Life outside of work is swell! I've met a lot of cool people even after only being here at my permanent duty station for less than 3 months. It's a weird thing, because I'm very excited about going on deployment (and having dolphins by then), and seeing awesome things, but I've never been gone for that long. Who knows what will happen to my house in that amount of time. Something Jumanji-esque? Will my friends remember me? Will my car drive itself away? Deployment is far away, so these are trivial musings anyway...

Quick book reviews:

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse: Amazing! I went in, expecting a plain old novel, and came out unsure yet satisfied. Like a protein shake made with spoiled milk. If you like thinking, this book is for you. If you like non-thinking, avoid this book.

Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemmingway: I actually got stressed out when the sharks were eating his fish. This was my first Hemmingway, and I think I'm a fan. I love his stark yet effective prose.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Holy crap, this won the Nobel Prize in Literature? Sure it was kinda fun to read, but I spent a lot of time doubting this fictional universe that Marquez created. Even more so, I thought the rampant incest was unnecessary. And all the cool characters kept dying. Overall, an annoying book.

Rock Climbing Anchors, by Mountaineer's Outdoor Expert Series: Ironically, there aren't many climbable rocks in my parts now - but I still yearn for the stone.