Hello all again, just wanted to clear up some confusion on the last blog that i posted last week. To respond to all of your questions, let me start with responding to each person.
Maddie: The guy handed over the keg, but after he gave us the Foosball table, he wanted his beer back. I will explain the pass a bit later in this blog. All the stuff we had, we split it between each of us, if we wanted it, then we could have it. We don't want to give up anything that we received, you will have no luck there.
Grandpa Pearcy: At first we weren't having any luck finding things, just little stuff like Frisbees, glow sticks, and just not good stuff to trade or hand off to. The success was all in negotiating and basically tricking people into giving up the good stuff. I'm not a particular charmer myself, so, my skills were a little useless.
Andrew: We don't get any special privileges usually, but it has been known to happen once or twice before. I found out that we didn't get anything special even after getting something special for the TC. The object was bigger or better, but we happened to hit both qualifications on the table. To explain the keg again, we gave it up for the Foosball table, as well as a box TV. We don't plan on trading this thing, we have every intention to keep this right with us.
Now on to a different topic, I will talk about my time this weekend at Army FTX (field training exercise). We froze our butts off doing things such as land navigation, eating MRE's (Meal Ready to Eat), and standing at attention for about thirty to forty-five minutes in 20 degree or less temperatures. The only time we got to warm up was when we went to bad at 1 to 12 in the morning. We didn't really get much sleep, maybe getting a total of 4 hours to sleep each night.
The total amount of sleep I received over this weekend was roughly 6 hours of sleep over a three day period. I'm pretty frickin tired, but I have to keep pushing forward and make it through the rest of this week. The after effects of being in a 20 degree, wind driven mountain is that everything I wear inside of a normal temperature building feels like i'm being burned with a blowtorch. The positive side of this is that everything I eat taste like it came from heaven. If any of you have eaten an MRE, then you know exactly what i'm talking about.
I will wrap this up by saying that my weekend wasn't a complete waste, we got to experience what the actual Army is like and how it works. All in all, it was a fun time, but I wouldn't do it unless I had a cold weather proof jacket.
Knight
Monday, November 11, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
Bigger or Better Pass
I have a very
exciting story to tell you guys this week. Well, we went on Unity Pass on
Saturday and played a game called Bigger or Better. We started off this game
with a paperclip and the point of the game is to work your way up to bigger or
better things by negotiating. We had no clue how others did it, but some other
companies worked their way up to getting a car. We knew that wasn’t going to
happen to us, but we started off by making out way to Slusher tower where I met
Grandpa Pearcy! He was out on RA duty and he seemed to be intrigued by what we
were doing, so being the good RA he is, he told me to tell the others not to
make too much of a mess or a racket. We walked all twelve flights of steps and
worked our way down, and hit up all five floors of Slusher Wing all within a
time limit of forty-five minutes. All in all, we came out with Frisbees, a flat
football, a hat, and a traffic cone.
Our
next objective was to hit Pritchard Hall, we went through all the floors
looking for someone drunk enough to give us something good. Well, the lesson
here is that if you’re looking for someone drunk at eight at night, let’s just
say that it’s not going to happen. We did leave the hall with a dress, a bra, a
box fan, a lamp, a broken Xbox, and NFS: Hot Pursuit. We finally had to leave
and go back to the dorms by nine, and while walking back, we conveniently ran
into Cadet Captain Harton. We showed him what we had received and asked for
more time, basically we went back online and were told we had till eleven to
get something good, or else our pass this weekend would be terrible.
We
got out of the dorms and decided to head straight for Fraternity and Sorority
houses where there are bound to be drunks willing to give up something good. We
hit up the first sorority house and were told to go straight to The Chase. We
took that advice to heart and headed straight there were we came out with a
pack of cigarettes, a nice lamp, a rockband guitar, and a box T.V. The morale
of the story is that cadets apparently look like cops, because that’s what all
of the houses thought we were when we showed up at the doors knocking them down
asking for random donations.
By
this time, we were all getting extremely tired and were running out of
fraternity houses to run into with drunk people at ten-thirty at night. As we
were walking back, we heard pounding and thumping coming from a house, and
decided that we should go hit it up. This house was packed with people dressed
up in costumes with nothing but beer almost literally flowing out of the house.
We nicely asked someone near the door that wasn’t too drunk to get the owner of
the house. After a few minutes, he came out and asked what we needed, so we
told him the story we told about a million times that night. He said “let me
see what I have” and came back saying that he could give us a beer keg… We were
all thinking that this could either be a good or a bad thing, so we decided to
take the keg. Before we got the chance to say thank you and leave, he said
there was something else he would be willing to give up.
We
asked him what that might’ve been and we followed him into another fraternity
house full of drunken, green painted body armymen. We went into the attic and
he showed us a foosball table… Holy crap, he was going to give us this thing,
our pass is going to be great. We were trying to hurry to take it out of the house
and when we were halfway to the door, the owner said to “hurry up before
someone changes their mind.” We finally got it out the door and basically ran
off with this table.
On
our way back, people kept giving us the weirdest looks as it took half of our
group to carry this from Roanoke Street back to Brodie Hall. We opened up the
side door and the expression that Cadet Captain Harton was something we had
never seen before, he overflowed with happiness. He couldn’t believe we went
out and actually got this, he took a few double takes just to make sure it was
real, actually, all of the upperclassmen did. We got it upstairs, told the
upperclassmen the whole story and their mouths were just dropped on the floor.
Long
story short, we are going to have an amazing pass next weekend, and hopefully
we will get to wear civilian clothes! Till then, I hope you guys have an
awesome week.
Monday, October 28, 2013
My rant on Dining Facilities at VT
This time around, I have been asked to write about something non corp related by a certain someone. I'm not gonna call this person out, but you know who you are. As we all know, the dining facilities at Virginia Tech are one of the best in the country, maybe that's why some of us decided to come here. While it is really good food, there is just one problem I find flawed with these facilities. My problem with these places is that they all have the same food.
While the dining facilities at Virginia Tech are great, I struggle with the problem that it is all the same food. Turner's, Owens, and D2 all have a burrito place (just different names) and also have multiple pizza places. D2 is always serving the same thing at breakfast and dinner. Breakfast being donuts, eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes. Dinner always serves the same pizza, the same chicken and hamburger patties and the same old burritos. Owens has a pizza place, a burrito place, and a burger place. At last, Turner's has a burrito restaurant, and yet another pizza place. While this is all good and dandy, it gets a little old after eating the same thing over and over again.
This all gets shaken up though by Owen's Chick-fil-a and dunkin donuts. Turner's and Owen's both have a smoothie making restaurant. Finally, Turner Place has a bagel place for a quick grab and go breakfast before heading to class. If you ever need to go get a good breakfast, I would recommend going to breugger's (or however you spell it) bagel place. These bagels are relatively cheap and really quick to make. Even though these dining facilities mostly have the same old thing everyday, there is ways to break it up.
I think i've done enough damage to the Virginia Tech dining facilities for today, and I know there are people out there that agree with me. If you don't agree, then by all means, give me a good counter argument and we can have a friendly argument where we just might compromise. I hope everyone has a good week and looks forward to the weekend, I know i'm ready for it!
While the dining facilities at Virginia Tech are great, I struggle with the problem that it is all the same food. Turner's, Owens, and D2 all have a burrito place (just different names) and also have multiple pizza places. D2 is always serving the same thing at breakfast and dinner. Breakfast being donuts, eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes. Dinner always serves the same pizza, the same chicken and hamburger patties and the same old burritos. Owens has a pizza place, a burrito place, and a burger place. At last, Turner's has a burrito restaurant, and yet another pizza place. While this is all good and dandy, it gets a little old after eating the same thing over and over again.
This all gets shaken up though by Owen's Chick-fil-a and dunkin donuts. Turner's and Owen's both have a smoothie making restaurant. Finally, Turner Place has a bagel place for a quick grab and go breakfast before heading to class. If you ever need to go get a good breakfast, I would recommend going to breugger's (or however you spell it) bagel place. These bagels are relatively cheap and really quick to make. Even though these dining facilities mostly have the same old thing everyday, there is ways to break it up.
I think i've done enough damage to the Virginia Tech dining facilities for today, and I know there are people out there that agree with me. If you don't agree, then by all means, give me a good counter argument and we can have a friendly argument where we just might compromise. I hope everyone has a good week and looks forward to the weekend, I know i'm ready for it!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Cadet Struggle is Real
The fact that the every
upperclassmen cadet expects us to be perfect in every way, shape, and form
really messes with my mind and it kills me on the inside. When we sound off
(give the greeting of the day with name and rank) inside the dorm area, we
aren't allowed to look around and see who is talking to us, so we are stock
still at attention and looking straight forward. We ask permission to ask a
question and they always rudely say “why don’t you know who I am!” I wonder why
we don’t know who you are, maybe it’s because they make sure we can’t see your
face! Sometimes we know who the person is, and we sound off and they are
impressed or they just play it off like it’s nothing to them. As for myself,
I’m one of those people that puts names to faces a lot easier than putting
names to voices.
The other problem is when the
upperclass cadets just walk into our rooms at random times and yell at us for
random things. Especially when we are in the middle of something important, it
really doesn't help me concentrate. There has been plenty of times where I will
be in the middle of a quiz or doing something important and the four knocks
means that they are about to invade my personal space and come get on my case
for no reason whatsoever. Why can’t they just leave us alone, don’t they have
better things to do than bug the freshmen cadets? This is a daily occurrence
and the other thing that makes me mad is that we have to be at attention the
whole time that an upperclassmen is in our dorm rooms. The problem is that the
upperclassmen will get so bored with themselves that they just bug us and tell
us to do stupid things.
We sometimes do “fun” activities
which take place during the times that we are supposed to be studying and it
makes all of mad. Some people have really important tests, quizzes, or even
exams to take the next day. This is a major problem because academics are
supposed to come first, but the policy of the upperclassmen think that the Corp
comes first and that really messes with us and our GPA’s. Some of my classwork
has have to have been put off because of the things that we have been told to
do. Grades suffer for this reason, no wonders that the Corp GPA drops
drastically every Fall semester.
I have been ranting for some time
on this subject, but you all should see where I am coming from on this. The
Corp is a great program, don’t get me wrong on that, but they just need to back
off the freshmen a little and give them some space to breath. I know our lives
are supposed to suck, but at least give us a chance to get a decent college
experience while doing it.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Freshmen Cadet Life vs Upperclassmen Cadet Life
Freshmen Cadet Life
vs Upperclassmen Cadet Life
The freshmen lifestyle is more rigorous, more physically and
mentally challenging, and more academically demanding than any upperclassmen’s
life. As a freshmen cadet, we start off going through one of the worst weeks of
our lives called New Cadet Week, which is a challenge within itself. After that
week, we start our first year as college freshmen, but with a twist. Instead of
living and acting like normal college kids, we have to drag around the hallways
speed walking at 120 beats per minute. We also don’t have any time outside of
the Corp to do fun activities, get social with your civilian friends, or even
use the restroom without getting yelled at for walking to fast because you
really have to go and you swear you can’t hold it any longer. The thing is that
as a New Cadet, we will go the extra mile or two to walk around Lower or Upper
Quad just so that way we don’t have to sound off to upperclassmen.
The stress of being a college kid and being a cadet at the
same time really wants to make me pull my hairs out sometimes, but in the end,
it’s going to suck either way. Doing academics inside of the dorm room is
usually not a good idea because at any moment a cadre can bust down the door
and start chewing a cadet out for the dumbest things. The only real way to
study or do homework is during Evening Call to Quarters or ECQ for short, and
even then, it is challenging to even concentrate.
As a New Cadet, we learn to be a little bit more paranoid
about every little detail that looks or seems to be out of order in everything
we do. Sitting in the dorm rooms and watching as the shadows walk by is like
waiting for a bomb to explode, as soon as that door opens, you better be up and
at attention or else that could mean demerits, which can lead to marching at
five in the morning in a circle for hours on end. This paranoia comes in handy,
because I've learned that I can listen to conversations well within an eight to
ten foot circle around me. It’s not that I’m trying to snoop in on anyone’s
conversations, it’s really just a precautionary measure to make sure I don’t
get called out by an upperclassmen in a crowd.
The life of an upperclassmen is the one thing that I look
forward to after freshmen year. As an upperclassmen, the cadets don’t have to
sound off, unless there is an officer passing by, they get to change into
civilian clothes and be comfortable while us New Cadets are burning alive or
freezing to death in our mandatory uniform of the day, they get to basically do
whatever they want, whenever they want, and they also get to yell at New
Cadets.
The life of an upperclassmen is one to die for, but pushing
through the first year can be very frustrating, tough, exhausting, and very
time consuming. The constant sounding off, dragging, and academic work load
that cadets receive can really impact us in a hard way. Waking up at around
five or six in the morning doesn’t help, especially on day when we have morning
PT. The “fun” activities that the Corp has planned for us aren’t really that
fun, and they can take time away from our academic work. While we are out
learning about the pylons, Corp history, or taking Unity Pass, we could be
working on studying for quizzes, tests, and even exams that are really
important to our grades.
The Corp of Cadets overall is an amazing program and during
freshmen year they teach us discipline, character, and most of all, Honor and
Integrity. It is hard to understand and grasp the concepts as a New Cadet
joining the Corp, and the only real way is to learn by trial and error. College
isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be when joining the Corp of Cadets, but that
is what we signed up for, to mentally, physically, and emotionally challenge us
in every way possible.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
To Bomb or Not to Bomb
What would really happen if America started dropping bombs
on Syria? The military strikes shouldn’t occur for very specific reasons: Relationships
between potential enemy countries will wear thin, stress will be at an all-time
high again, and the economy will either suffer drastically or increase from the
productivity of the country to help with this militarily. The arguments between
Barack Obama and Putin are not turning out for the better, but seem to be placing
more tension between the two old rivaled enemies. These arguments have gotten
so tense and dangerous that the UK has opted out of helping the U.S. if a
military conflict were to outbreak. During an interview on BBC, British Defense Secretary Phillip Hammond said the votes were
285 deciding for no military action to 272 votes for military action. Even
though this was a close win, it has been decided that the UK will involve in no
military action against Syria.
After the August twenty-first chemical gas attacks, the U.S.
threatened military retaliation against Bashar Assad. The issue was resolved
when The Daily News reported that
President Obama has assured that the Pact created with Russia for Syria to hand
over the chemical weapons doesn’t weaken or affect the United States in any way.
This pact was designed to take the all chemical weapons out of Syria and put
them into Russia. Even with this vague pact stating that these weapons will not
be used, President Barack Obama still has the threat of bombing Syria over
Russia’s head.
These bombings just might start another World War in which
the old superpowers, Russia and the United States will fight once more over
something so little, so insignificant to our way of life in which this war
would destroy everything we have ever worked towards. At this rate, another war
would help boost the economy because of the response of each country, but the
purging of innocent lives and the lives of military personnel would not be
worth the time and effort behind it. Another war will not only destroy cultures
and ways of life, this would scar the minds of children for years to come. Just
like in World War II, there was no real need for it, except the fact that greed
and power got in the way. That war was supposed to end all wars, but did it
really, or will history repeat itself once more?
Another fight in Syria can ignite a spark that will most
likely start another military conflict. After all of the fighting about Weapons
of Mass Destruction and terrorism in Afghanistan for 11 years, the Miami Herald states that the casualty
rates from Afghanistan come up to around 2,135 deaths and over 19,287 wounded
in action. If the situation becomes bad enough, we might have to start sending
kids roughly between the ages of eighteen to twenty-five to go fight this
battle for us. As a Cadet, this idea scares all of us that at our young age,
our childhoods would be robbed, so that way we can go fight a country out in
the Middle East over one little decision from Congress or the President. As a
whole, we watch very closely at what is going on in the world and how it will eventually
affect us.
Where will bombing Syria really get us? There is no definite
answer to this question, but another war, another lost country, and more time
and lives wasted on a useless country that really means nothing to us other
than the chemical weapons that are being used. If the Middle East wants to
attack itself and destroy itself from the inside, I say let them do it, because
that will save time, money, and despair for the American people that will go
out there and fight for this beautiful country. The lives saved from treating
this with caution is a whole lot better than just turning Syria into a parking
lot.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Red Phase coming to an end
As the Red Phase comes to a close with the Caldwell March,
I’ve come to understand and integrate myself with the Corp of Cadets over this
past month. I look back at what I have done, the mistakes I have made, the
friendships I have made, and how my journey at Virginia Tech has been playing
out so far. This new environment has taught me that not everything is as it
seems, that everything I have learned should’ve been thrown out the window a
long time ago, and that freshmen year can be a real torture chamber. As this
progresses to White Phase, nothing will really change, but we will get some
privileges such as hair privilege, backpack privilege, or maybe even headphone
privilege. These privileges are something that civilians and upperclassmen
cadets take for granted, while underclassmen cadets are stuck with almost
nothing. As this year slowly gets better, the more responsibilities we have,
and that means the more my buds and I have to look out for each other. This
also means that things will get more relaxed and we will be able to do whatever
we want without having someone constantly harping on us on how to do things and
what to do at the current moment. The football games have been something else,
I have never experienced anything like that until I came to Virginia Tech.
Especially being in the Corp of Cadets crowd, and we do push on each other’s
shoulders for peet’s sake! Have any of you tried to do push-ups in the pouring
rain as hard as a typhoon, it really isn’t as fun as you would think. The classes
are a lot different from High School just by the fact of the sheer amount of
people in each classroom setting. The workload isn’t quite as bad as a
freshmen, but the Corp helps us by making mandatory study times from seven to
eleven at night. The only problem with this mandatory study time is that the
Cadre will walk in at any random time and make us do something stupid or just
distract us from our work. The easiest way to solve this is to go to the
library, which is a lot safer and quieter than being around upperclassmen
cadets. This has been your live reporter Knight getting these facts right from
the source, see you all next week!
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