The Life and Times of Adam Hinds

My mom sent this to me a while ago and I thought it was awesome enough to share.

A 6 year old and a 4 year old are upstairs in their bedroom. ‘You know what?’ says the 6 year old. ‘I think it’s about time we started cussing.

The 4 year old nods his head in approval. The 6 year old continues,
‘When we go downstairs for breakfast, I’m gonna say something with hell and you say something with ass.’ The 4 year old agrees with enthusiasm.

When the mother walks into the kitchen and asks the 6 year old what he wants for breakfast, he replies, ‘Aw, hell, Mom, I guess I’ll have some Cheerios.’

WHACK! He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up, and runs upstairs crying his eyes out, with his mother in hot pursuit, slapping his rear with every step. His mom locks him in his room and shouts, ‘You can stay there until I let you out!’ She then comes back downstairs, looks at the 4 year old and asks with a stern voice, ‘And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?’

‘I don’t know, he blubbers, but you can bet your ass it won’t be Cheerios!’

Today I was exceptionally involved in improving my familiarization with my MacBook, particularly with it’s interface with the internet in the form of Web 2.0 style applications. I discovered today a few cool new things. One is this sweet Firefox-based web browser called Flock which interfaces with a number of social networking sites and overall helps make navigating to your favorite websites and sharing content 100x easier. Sadly though, I’ve found a few bugs in it already. One of which is it won’t recognize my site’s RSS feed, nor will it interface with my blog.

Another cool thing is this. I’ve always known Apple’s Mail application would read RSS feeds, I had just never put it to use. Today I decided to change that. I realized a lot of the blogs and sites I go to alot had RSS feeds, and decided I too would take advantage of these time saving features. So I subscribed to them through Mail, and then I realized something. Mail is the best RSS reader EVER. Much better than My Yahoo!, Google Reader, or even Safari. It puts all feeds into Mail as if they were emails. Very cool. Well that’s all I have for today.

That’s right! I finally got a PSP. Now I just gotta find a couple good games to keep me busy. Any suggestions?

I’ve had this since my first deployment and thought I would share it with whoever wants it. Enjoy. It’s in excel format.

Download Deployment Tracker

Well as some may already know, I am halfway through my first Arabian Gulf deployment (my third deployment total) and though there are a few similarities to the others, I can honestly say this deployment thus far has been the most educational and strangely most relaxed. Our mission (which I don’t think I can really talk about) maintains a set routine. I’ve been having some issues with my role personally, but overall it isn’t bad. The worst part of any deployment is being away from home and family, and this is no exception. I haven’t had much of a chance to call my parents or friends at all, and I find it hard to call my wife more than once a day. Some people don’t even get the chance to call home more than once a week, so I am lucky I guess. That’s definitely the hardest part. My first deployment (to South America) I wasn’t married nor did I have a girlfriend, so it was easier. Plus I had my friend Glenn to hang out with. My second deployment (to Asia) was harder because I was away from my wife (at the time she was my girlfriend/fiancé) but she flew out a few times and because of the time difference I was still able to call more. This deployment it is very hard because when I’m not working, she’s working, or when she’s not working, I’m working. But I have more friends on this deployment than on any others. At this point in the blog post I feel like I am rambling more than anything. Which I guess is what I have this blog for. But I will stop.

Time for another update. Well, I am contemplating my dilemma. I am to the point where I can start working on becoming qualified Officer of the Deck Underway (which is the highest qualification one can have on a Patrol Coastal ship), but I am not sure if I should begin pursuing this qualification. On the one hand, it would put me way ahead in my career overall and look really good for future advancement if I were to get qualified. On the other hand, it would make me more valuable to the crew, which is something I’m not sure I want. See, I am an OS. My “rated” job doesn’t really have anything to do with the job I am performing on the PC’s. This hurts me because I am slowly but surely forgetting a lot about my rate (if you don’t USE it you LOSE it). And when I think about it, I was out of the navy (in the reserves working out of rate) for almost a year before I came back in, plus the 4 years I’m supposed to be on PC’s, plus the three years of shore duty I will be taking once I leave the PC’s (if I stay on PC’s for 4 years), that’s 8 years total I will be basically working outside my rate. This is really bad. I will basically forget everything I’ve learned. So I want to get out of the PC community and move to a regular ship where I can better do my “rated” job. This is proving to be more difficult that it seems. Though I have addressed this issue with my chain of command, and they acknowledge that I don’t really serve a true defined purpose, I am just filling a billet, and that’s all “big navy” gives a shit about, so nothing is being done to help me get out of the PC community and back onto a real ship where I can perform my rate. My plan is to request a split tour after two years on PC’s to transfer to a frigate, cruiser, or destroyer but my fear is that if I become qualified Officer of the Deck, my request is more likely to be denied which will hurt me in the long run, and it will be more difficult to replace me. I want to strive to become a better sailor and OS, but I don’t want to fuck myself in the long run either way. So I really have no fucking clue what to do. The fact is I don’t belong on a PC, but since I am stuck here I want to do everything I can. But I can’t help ponder all these possibilities.