Stream of Conciousness: The End Goal (for now)

We all strive to reach the conclusion to the hard work we are putting forth and this is mine. I piece of metal with some shiny rocks attached to it. A class ring. A symbol of triumph and victory over the rigors of college life and classes and problems. And this one is mine.

What you see is an anchor and propeller the two symbols of the warring departments at this college, the Deckies and the Engineers, respectfully. Why did I get the ring with both symbols, especially when I am an engineer? The answer is simple, no ship can be run on it’s own by just one department. We depend on our brothers whether in the wheelhouse or down in the engine room to work together to make the voyage.

You also see a rigged tall ship, the USS Saint Mary’s. The first training ship of our college actually our first college. The ship itself was a school for mariners to become mariner officers. You can see an eagle, this particular one is fashioned off of the eagle on top of the New York Sate Seal.

There is also a pentagon representing the home of the college, Fort Schuyler. To finish off the ring there are two words on either side of the Fort, “Loyalty” and “Valor” our colleges motto and I do what I can to hold true to these words.

You also see an ocean colored stone that is flanked by green and red (not seen) stones that are reminiscent of the running lights on a nautical vessel.

What you don’t see in the photo is a pinch of failure. The graduating year on that ring “2012” well, it’s 2013 and I still haven’t graduated. Am I embarrassed? A smidgen but I am proud of all that I have done here (minus some of the academics but that’s another story for another day). I’ve started a handful clubs on campus and still run one today and have learned much about the shipping industry as I can. I continue to learn about it as much as I can each day while between classes, meetings, practices, work, and trying to squeeze a phone call with my girlfriend into jam packed schedule.

Is it tough? Hell yes. No doubt about it but that doesn’t stop it from being fun even though I maybe running on empty through most of the week. I am aiming for a July Graduation and working asap unless I get an internship at the union i want to work for which will give me a leg up on my peers looking for jobs.

My main focus is passing all my classes so all I need to do for graduation is to take the seven tests that compose of the US Coast Guard Third Assistant Engineers license exam. Once those tests are completed I will have graduated and be on my way to the next level in my life. (Many thanks to Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness for the Level Up Your Life way of thinking.)
But I also am doing what I can to manage my clubs and commitments on campus as well as a Resident Advisor. Nothing says victory quite like saving the world on a daily basis even if it means just tackling every item on my list. (I never though I’d see the day where I do my homework well before it’s due and attend all my  classes for the week.)

Sure I may have failed my goal of getting out of Maritime in four years but there is no need to race through every level in life. I’m finally on the boss battle for this stage and I have all the hidden power ups and secrets needed to win the high score. I just have to keep focused and don my silly cap of propellers.

Stream of Conciousness: Enough is enough

It’s finally time I get off my lazy ass and finally commit to cutting weight. Too long have I decided I’m fine where I am, that just lead to me getting larger. Sure my weight is starting to go down now but I know it will be back up again soon. I need a plan and have one now. Diet and hit the gym. I don’t have to go for hours on end. I just have to do something to get my self moving. Even if its just body weight exercises in my room. Something, anything is better then my current plan of do nothing but sit on my ass all day. Do I need advice, not really. It’s the motivation. But before that even starts I have to start the biggest and worst change there is. Diet. Paleo-as-possible, no carbs, low dairy, moderate fruits, high meats (lean) and vegetables. Sure the college will make it tricky and difficult and boring but that will not stop me anymore. I’ll suffer now and live longer later. There is no valid reason not to be healthier, it’s all beneficial. Now that it is out in a public forum I have to commit to it. I’m not going to fool anyone any more. It starts now.

Off to the gym.

Huge delay.

Well, I try to post at least once a week but due to the storm (Hurricane Sandy) that just came through town I had to delay posting. So let’s see what happened over the last two weeks.

I went an a spectacular date in the northern Jersey / southern New York area. Started off with a quick trip in traffic over the George Washington Bridge. After maybe two hours of transit I arrived at the pick-up point. We quickly departed for some food at a local diner. I must say the food was mediocre, nothing special but it was good to finally see her since the last time we met back during labor day weekend. After the quick snack it was off to the venue for the evening. The Warwick Drive-In. I must say a Drive-In movie is a first for me and it was great. The audio comes in over your cars speakers on radio stations and it is truly amazing the quality of audio you can get even in the most economy of cars. As I digress. It was a double feature for 9 dollars a person, truly a bargain. I recommend everyone go for the experience and the cost. After the movies had ended we drove around the area just looking at all the towns for something to do. We stopped in a local parking lot for some quick shenanigans the continued on our way to  for some hot chocolate and candy to end the night. I had left the school at 6pm and returned around 4am and I must say the entire night was worth it. I left with a girlfriend who seemed to understand much of who I was. Despite it being a first date we decided that maybe getting into a relationship albeit long distance would be good for us considering how well we seemed to get along. We got a hotel room and spent the whole night and next morning just bumming around and having fun and getting to each other more and knew that deciding to be “official” was a great idea. Then came Monday morning. Day Zero.

More on the woman who has decided to invest time and emotion into me.
I met her through a friend of mine at college actually. They were dating at the time and eventually ended breaking up. I asked her what happened and seems he broke up with her. So, her and I chatted on facebook for 3 weeks and I decided to do something crazy. I drove all the way down to Virginia for Labor Day weekend to meet her (again) and get to know her. It turns out she is quite similar to me in almost every regard (except food). I packed my bag and came back to NY and continued to talk with her. Soon our conversations were sort of serious and we decided we needed to meet again. Her cousin was being christened in Jersey at the end of October so that’s how she got up here for the first date.

Day Zero.
We woke up and got ready packed our things and checked out of the hotel. It was starting to drizzle. We got in the car and headed back towards her grandparents home. Then it happened. My first car accident. Headed up an exit ramp the car started to lose traction and I made a rookie mistake, braking hard. The back end of the car swung out as I was now drifting around this turn at sub 25 mile per hour speeds (about 40 kilometers and hour for you foreigners). I kept on the brakes because the front wheels were making contact with the road and were slowing down the front of the car. All I could think was “OH F*CK!” as the rear passenger tire bounced up the curb and into the dirt as the rear bumper smashed into the guard rail. The car bounced back into the street with fairly minor damage to the bumper. I was lucky the front tires slowed us down so much other wise we might have gone through the guard rail. Either way, after assessing the collisions effect on the vehicle I deemed it road worthy and continued on my way, determined to get out of the storm and my now girlfriend to safety. I closed out any stimuli that wasn’t related to the drive there, disregarding my girlfriend for what seemed like an eternity before realizing she was shook up. We finally arrived at her grandparents house where i printed directions to my uncle’s house and was back on the streets again. This time however the rain seemed to have subsided but the wind picked up. The drive was surreal. The interstate was nearly empty as well as the state and county roads as well as I traveled from New Jersey to Connecticut. After two and a half hours I had arrived safely and was greeted by welcoming family members. We enjoyed the storm until power went out at approximately 8:30pm and then it was into darkness, for maybe 3 minutes. My aunt and uncle were well prepared and had battery powered lanterns ready to go. I must say we were spoiled  he had gas heat in the house as well as a wood burning stove and also had hot water to shower with. Just no lights. All in all I am quite fortunate for the luxuries I had during the storm.

I’ll hopefully try to another post out this week more about my experiences during the storm and of anything else that may have happened since I last posted.
I hope everyone fared the hurricane well.

-Mitch

Meandering About Campus

Decided to enlighten the masses about the environment in which I reside. Here’s a selection of pictures of campus from my cellphone.

Enjoy!

If you have any questions about the pictures ask away in the comments.

-Mitch

Quick Update

I don’t have near enough time to dedicate to a real post tonight so I’ll just give a quick update of whats to come.

Just ordered most of a computer from newegg.com today and should start building it this weekend so maybe I’ll get a build log going.

I will also be  stuck on campus all weekend on RA duty so I’ll have plenty of time to adventure around and take some quick pictures of campus.

I have to get back to work on a marketing presentation I’ll catch you all later and with a much better post.

-Mitch

Back in Action.

After a not so long weekend away from the computer it’s time to get back to work.

So, I went home this weekend decided to avoid the computer and the world wide web. It wasn’t anything special just had to find other ways to occupy my time. I started Friday by talking politics with my father and enjoying a cigar with him as well. Despite how accurate he may or may not have been it a was a good way to bond with him considering we haven’t really bonded in years.

Saturday was great, more bonding. This time with my brother as well. We started the trucks and towed the log splitter to the job site; a friend of the family’s home. He had a few trees cut down and asked us if we wanted the wood. We of course said yes. So we fired up the splitter and the chain saw and went to work. Trying to get all the wood to a manageable size to lift and load the truck with. After many hours and 3 cords of wood later (a unit of measure for 128 cubic feet) or 6 pallets of wood stacked 4 foot tall 4 foot wide and 4 feet deep.

Why take all that tree? We use a wood burning stove to heat our house to keep costs down. It’s a lot of hours of work collecting, preparing, storing, and using the wood but it is well worth it and really adds an unique element to life. It helps put perspective on the things we take for granted.

It was a good day ending with everyone tired after lifting all the wood into the trucks and off the trucks once we got back home. Next time I’m home I’ll be sure to take pictures of the fire wood operation and how we survive the winter.

-Mitch

Circadian

It’s been a rough few days, lack of sleep, studying (barely), stress from everything that needs my attention. Being a student takes more focus and dedication than a full time job. Classes to attend, studying to be done, meetings to go to, meetings to run, paperwork for just about everything, Resident Advisor duty. If I’m lucky I’ll catch some sleep here and there.

It’s not the work load that bothers me. I thrive being busy and having things to do. Most the the things I do I enjoy or at least try to find some small aspect of it that I enjoy. The real burden is how lost I can get in the routine. Some days I’ll find myself wondering how I am supposed to finish my to do list for that day only to realize that I’m walking towards a meeting that takes place tomorrow.

Going through the motions is what “they” call it I guess. Granted my time management skills are far from stellar they have been enough to get me through this far. This year is going to be the real test of my being and once I’m make it to the end I’ll know I’m ready for the “real” world. Sure my days have a pinch of variety now but it cuts into any free time I’d like to have to sit and enjoy the scenery.

“Day in and day out, sun up and sun down
Each today melts with yesterday.
Lost in tomorrow and found next week
Time ticks away as I take a moment to sort it out.
The day grinds by as time rushes on
Doing the same thing as yesterday never took so long.
Jumping over hurdles and sliding under fences
Must find the exit to this hamster wheel”

Hopefully tomorrow I can start something new and press on with graduating this year.

-Mitch

On SUNY Maritime (Where fun goes to die)

I may have said that The Maritime College is best place on Earth but that doesn’t stop it from being awful.

Located in Throgs Neck, Bronx. The Maritime college is located at Fort Schuyler. You read correctly, I go to school in a fort (some linkage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Schuyler). When the school was much smaller the Cadets used to live the Fort as well. Now it houses classrooms and our library but enough of the Fort.

Although this place really isn’t that awful, it is perceived as such when compared to your normal everyday college. This place, despite how much it may have changed since its birth in 1874 (A very good year I might add) is still an academy of sorts.

Like most if not every academy, we have cadets in uniform in some sort of organization. Here it is known as the Regiment of Cadets. Our uniform is Khaki the sea is our life. This glorious assemblage of individuals has come together to learn how to work aboard merchant vessels and join together and experience a different kind of college.

This marvelous hell that I call home has it’s own ship; the Training Ship Empire State Six, also know as TSES6 and has the callsign KiloKiloFoxtrotWhiskey (KKFW). This ship is the main reason that college exists. Every summer the Regiment of Cadets boards the ship and sails across the Atlantic to various European ports but to clarify the Cadets themselves are the ones  that are on the helm and down in the engine room. Of course there are Captains, Mates, and Engineers there but they are there just  in case defecation hits the oscillation (which at least once a summer it does).

Although an academy with the Regiment of Cadets, Maritime also has a “civilian” program for those students who are not interested in shipping out and not interested in wearing uniforms and following rules.

So why does this place suck so much? If you asked my classmates many if not most would reply “The Regiment is out to get us”. The regiment to them being the Officers that advise and supervise the Regiment. The truth of the matter is that the Regiment is not the Officers but the Cadets. The Officers however may have too much influence on the Regiment and are reluctant to let it run itself. Sure it would be absolute utter chaos for awhile but eventually a clear order would work itself out.

The culture here is one that the Cadets are always being oppressed and being slighted by the system. You always hear, “it was better back in the day why would they change that”. The answer for changing, this place is actually failing and some of the changes are attempts to increase retention rates (I think it is approximately half of a freshman class ends up graduating from here). This doesn’t mean all changes are for retention rates. Some might be to better control the student body or just for someone to make a name for themselves.

I’m probably ranting and would like to apologize. Despite the constant bitching I hear here I wouldn’t trade it for anything. This is my family. The Regiment is something you rarely find somewhere else; a bunch of misfits, oddballs, whack jobs that may have countless grudges with each other will try their best to help a fellow shipmate out i.e. bar fights, arguments with locals, passing classes, warning each other of Officers locations that day.

My only advice to my classmates/shipmates is to stop complaining about all the little things and realize all the things they have going for them. Campus may be boring, rules may be strict but its not the worst place ever nor the most hardcore academy. If anything it’s an inconvenience at times but lets be serious. You chose to come here and you still choose to stay here. Clearly something is keeping you here more than the license program.  It’s the family and tradition this school has. It’s a rare thing to find a college that is also a family albeit highly dysfunctional but a family nonetheless.

The screw will keep turning but I’ll be there with the Regiment, one hand united against it.

Stream of Consciousness: Grey Day

The sky is grey and so is the water. I’m sitting at my desk looking towards the East River and see all sorts of tugs and barges working wondering if that will be me when I get out of school. Music is playing and I think to myself that it is incredibly sad that I will never be able to hear all the great music that this world offers. A nearly infinite playlist never to be heard because I simply do not have the time to find and listen to it all. Even worse there could have been songs that could have tilted the earth today but they were lost years ago if not centuries or millennia ago. Which leads to thoughts of how infinite this tiny planet is.

There are still things being discovered and learned about while others things disappear never to be found again or never having been found to begin with. Here and gone never influenced by humans so why let others waste your time and happiness. Get over yourself and get out there and discover something on your own. Don’t stay in one place, need to get out and see how everyone else does things. Ignorant or not I am sure there are lessons to be learned everywhere from everyone. Never hold anything back and don’t give up but know when to cut your losses and leave with dignity.

The smell of charcoal lighter fluid brings back memories of grilling and summer and friends of old. Relationships are always shifting and changing and there is little to do to control the tides of emotions and humanity. The one thing I want is that one person to be with me as I travel the world. A lover and companion. Best friend and life long partner. If things fade, they fade but most important of all is sharing the experience with someone you cherish. Don’t try to control life don’t let life try to control you just enjoy the ride and keep learning and expanding. Nothing in my way that will stop me. It may slow me but i will emerge victorious. Less than a year left here and only a few months until I can breath properly again.

That dude is running outside my window. It’s time to get off my fatass and get out there and cut this weight. 50 to go until graduation.

Well, here goes nothing.

Well, this is most awkward. I finally started the blog. Had a million ideas flying about my mind ready to spew forth upon these pixels and yet,  barely anything comes to mind now. It’s easy to “write” about yourself and your thoughts when you do all the work in your mind. Getting them out there/here where ever  to mostly complete strangers (most of whom I will never meet) however is a completely different beast. They, you, the reader doesn’t know the slightest bit of who I am, what I have been through or what I have felt and to compensate for this I’ll try my best to give an accurate description of myself without drowning you in every detail.

I am a college student. Enrolled in the greatest college on Earth: The State University of New York Maritime College. A college with so much history and even more stories, myths and legends I’ll have to devote other posts to it later. I am in my 5th and hopefully final year here and plan on receiving my United States Coast Guard 3rd Assistant Engineer License upon graduation. Hopefully outside of college I’ll be sailing for MEBA, the engineers union and paying back my loans relatively quickly. This is also the biggest influence on my life, the sea. I’ll do my damnedest to describe what it is like out on the open ocean, the middle of nowhere, the void, what have you.

I come from a family of 5. I am the oldest of 3 siblings and my parents are still married. Sure there is plenty to say about them but that’s for other stories. It wouldn’t do them justice to bury them in the first post.

I went to a small high school, graduated with a class of 172 (the largest class the school has ever seen). It was an interesting area to grow up in. We had tractor day at school when the farmer kids would ride tractors to school and take up as many parking places as possible.

I was spoiled as a child growing up, not with material possessions but with location. My grandparents on both sides live(d) with in 15 minutes of my family’s house. Across the street from me is a forested nature preserve that has been used for all sorts of adventures and shenanigans. Even better is that my family had water front property right down the road from the house. We have access to a dock slip and a beach and plenty of other beaches in almost any direction you can choose. Plenty of farm land around too. Looking back I realized I was blind to the gem that my town is.

Now for the most important part. Why did I start this blog in the first place? There is no easy answer. Maybe I wanted to share my life story with the world or maybe just pretend the world would read it. Make it into my health goal blog and use it as motivation to cut the weight I’ve put on since college started. Or just a place to get my ideas out of my head and recorded somewhere for once. The bits and pieces of stories/pieces/poetry that I compose in my mind. The best answer I can give to you all right now is that this is my blog, I’m not sure where it is going yet but I would appreciate it if you came along on the voyage with me as I continue to discover who I am and what I am capable of.

To end the first post here is a short little piece I wrote this summer.

“Letting the anchor go and drifting at the whim of the currents and winds. Where ever I may wash ashore I shall embrace it and build a new home.”

Thank you for reading I’ll post again soon.

-Mitch