Amanda's Alaskan Adventure

Saturday, June 26th

Another two down...

Last Friday was my second (and final) Cisco test. Got 100 on the written test, but forgot something really small that kept an entire process from working on the hands on portion, so I lost all of the points for that process, leaving me with a 90. Grr. I was highly upset with myself for that one, especially since the hands on is weighted heavier than the written.

This week's class was security, basically the same stuff that I had to do in Alaska to get certified. However, this particular instructor was much worse. Much much worse. I think that the only reason everyone in the class passed was because a couple nights this week we all sat down and studied together. But we all passed. And I got a hundred, which helps bring my GPA back where it should be.

One of my buddies from Korea is stationed here, and one of his buddies also had a birthday this week, so we were gonna go out to dinner and do a combined birthday thing. The other buddy ended up having to work late, but I went out anyway. And my entire class joined me (do you have any idea how hard it is to make a reservation for 20 on a Friday night?). That gave me such a nice warm and fuzzy feeling :)
Amanda on 06.26.10 @ 05:07 AM AKDT [link]

Wednesday, June 16th

Oh, and...

Forgot to mention another fun and exciting part of today:

As I was going from breakfast to class, me and the guy I was bumming a ride off of came up on some people pushing a van into a parking lot, so we stop and help them. Eventually manage to get the van into a parking spot.

Did I mention that the drive into the parking lot was on a bit of an uphill?

Got a little extra workout, and my good deed for the day all in one. :)
Amanda on 06.16.10 @ 04:13 PM AKDT [link]

Hump Day

So, Monday and Tuesday were retardedly hot. Around 100-ish. There were actually civilian-type heat advisories, so we didn't even have end-of-day formations, though we still had to mow lawns and all that stuff. Last night some storms rolled through, cooling it off slightly. It was actually below 80 this morning for PT.

Today's PT consisted of combatives (think Army wrestling/martial arts). The guy I was paired up with was a good sport, but I kept accidentally throwing him on his shoulder instead of his back. I felt so bad.

As I was getting out of the shower karma got me back: I missed the opening to the door by a good 6 inches and slammed my shoulder into the door frame. Not quite instant karma, but pretty close. And people wonder why I whole-heartedly believe that everything I do to other people will come back around.

We've got our second test on networking stuff this Friday, and this one is supposed to be much harder than the first, including a concept that a lot of people have a hard time understanding. So, one of my classmates asked if I could go over it some last night. No problem.

The next thing you know, my entire class has taken over the dayroom in order to study. With me leading the group. Am I the only who understands what is being taught???
Amanda on 06.16.10 @ 02:57 PM AKDT [link]

Tuesday, June 8th

One down..

Today we took our first test. It was broken up into two portions: written and hands-on. The written portion was your basic test, and we took it online. For the hands-on we had to actually set up a mini network.

The hands-on was easier by far, since you could tell if you did everything right by if it worked or not. I got a 100 on that portion. Got a 93.1 on the written.

According to the sharing of grades amongst classmates, that puts me tied for top honors right now. Still got a bunch of tests to go, but its good to know that I'm at least starting out on top. :)
Amanda on 06.08.10 @ 03:12 PM AKDT [link]

Wednesday, June 2nd

%^*& Cops

So, last weekend, some of my classmates and I went out to eat, then they wanted to head to a local bar/pool hall. No prob, I wasn't drinking, I could drive.

As we're leaving, we notice flashing lights, don't think too much of it, until they pull right behind me at a red light.. and then continue to follow me as I pull over. I've barely gotten out of the parking lot at this point, so I have no idea what the heck could be wrong.

I pull into a gas station parking lot, trying to ignore my intoxicated passengers, when the cop says he pulled me over for not having my headlights on. ?!?!?!? They came on automatically when I turned on the vehicle. He goes and runs my license, while one of my passengers gets out of the vehicle and proceeds to make sure that every light on the thing works (duh, its a rental, its gonna be ok) which leaves us even more confused.

Guy comes back, and says he's just going to give me a warning (frickin' better not have given me a ticket, or I'd have had to challenge him to show me how to turn the headlights off, cuz I sure couldn't make them turn off) and that they don't ticket those serving our country unless they've been drinking (soo.... the approx 100 yards he saw me drive made him think I was drinking? Huh?)

*growl*

*deep breath*

I have definitely figured out why Southerners do everything so slowly - its the only way to not die of heat exhaustion. And its barely June. *groan*

This morning woke to find out that it was cooler outside than in... the A/C (that hasn't been working great since I got here) managed to completely die overnight. It is not fun sweating your butt off when all you have on the bed is a sheet. Having to take two showers a day... *bleargh*

I hate this climate.

School itself has been going pretty good so far. I'm definitely glad for the college networking classes that I've taken - half the class is completely lost because they just don't have enough background with networking equipment (since we do sooo much more than networking, we don't always get a chance to work it).

Hey, lookie, an actual picture of me! Doing pushups!

This is from our PT test last week. Totally not fun, but you get to see me doing Army stuff! :)

Amanda on 06.02.10 @ 02:34 PM AKDT [link]