As you may know, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. What you may or may not also know is that the Corps is about to start winding down. This is the last full week of classes before the end of the semester, since next week is Thanksgiving break/t.u. game and the week after that is dead week. As such, we should be getting our Corps Brass either Friday or Saturday, which I am very thankful for. During the past few weeks, our class has messed up everything. What do I mean by everything? I'll tell you.
One of the things the fish do every formation is blow calls. Blowing calls is basically a training thing to make sure we have our heads in the game before any event. What happens is one fish and one buddy will come out of their hole about ten seconds (we have to time it exactly to official government time) before the official time for first call. The one who is blowing calls will be wearing a pot (Corps speak for an old hard hat) and carrying a horn. The two fish run down to the end of the hallway, blow the horn, and announce what event is happening, who the senior in charge of it is, who the junior in charge of call to quarters is, and who the sophomore of the day is, as well as the temperature and uniform of the day. We've messed up calls more times during brass than we've gotten them right. It's silly little things like not knowing exactly what the temperature is, not falling out exactly on time, or getting the uniform wrong.
The next thing we've been messing up is getting near the guidon. This is something that we pay dearly for. The guidon is the symbol of our outfit, and the sophomores smoke us hard when we get near it, walk behind it at chow, or, in some cases, actually run into the guidon bearer. I don't know how we keep not seeing it, since the bearer is the tallest sophomore we have, and the guidon itself is about seven feet long with a blue flag on top.
Then come the "various other". We've geen having a general lack of effort in things like uniform drills, inspections, campusologies, and things of that nature. In some cases, it's just stupid mistakes like missing words we can't know, but in the case of uniform inspections, some people just don't spend enough time on it. I'm pretty sure we're going to get smoked hard for the "various other".
On an upwards note, Bonfire is this Saturday! On a down note, we have guard room Saturday-Sunday! The outfit with the best Bonfire tradition was actually given guard room duty on the night of Bonfire. I've actually been out to cut logs once, and it was an experience. We actually got to talk to our sophomores like normal people and learn some special secrets from them (like exactly how to make a shoe look good). We also spent all morning cutting down a huge tree, and were ready to carry it out of the forest when someone at another site dropped their log and broke someone's leg. The leadership at the cutting area decided to suspend the carrying of logs for the rest of the day, so I'm not even sure if our log got out of the forest.
I'm actually doing alright now, though I was on the verge of a total breakdown on Tuesday. I haven't been getting enough sleep (actually, I think I'll get one full night of sleep this week, and that was on Monday) and I have a hard time keeping from smiling at the stupid things the juniors and seniors say. Another problem I'm having is that, to keep from smiling, I'm biting my cheeks, so they're now totally raw, which keeps me from eating quickly. Now the sophomores think I'm one of the limpest fish in the outfit. I've picked up recently, and actually managed to survive a good bull session without smiling once! (That's a big accomplishment, really)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
First Week of Corps Brass
Corps Brass push officially started on Monday! This is the part of the fish year where we get to prove to our upperclassmen that we are, indeed, capable of being good little fishies in the Corps. Up to this point, apparently, we have been in a kind of "probationary fish" stage. Now we will get the right to actually wear the Corps symbol on our collar in the place of one of the A.M.U.'s that we normally wear.
To prove that we can be good fish, we have to accomplish a number of goals over the next few weeks. One of those is daily uniform inspections. In one of these inspections, a sophomore goes over you with a notecard and measures your brass, checks your shoes and belt buckle, and generally finds everything that could possibly be wrong. On the notecard, they record all the "cuts" on the uniform so that we can fix them later. In all seriousness, I actually like that part of brass, because my uniform is finally looking how it should. We also can ask questions about how to fix things like deep scratches in brass, scuffs on shoes, and other things like those.
Another thing that's been happening during this week is we're getting smoked a lot more. I'm not sure if it's because it's Corps Brass or what, but we've messed up a lot this week. First, we forgot to run Batfish on Monday. Batfish is the daily delivery of the Battalion, the school newspaper, to our upperclassmen's doors. We had to do a class set (112) of pushupsfor that. The very next day, we forgot again. Another class set. Also, several people didn't do the required amount of Personal Call to Quarters (PCQ) for the week, so we had to do another class set on Friday. Needless to say, we're all more than a little annoyed at the person responsible.
One interesting thing that came out of out Tuesday PT was a six-mile run. We ran from the quad all the way to George Bush Library and back again. I did pretty well, but I can't say the same for all my buddies, or even some of the sophomores and juniors. One sophomore actually complained audibly to his buddies in front of all the fish. Doing better than the upperclassmen in a run makes us all feel great.
Another thing that has changed during Corps Brass is that the good bull from the juniors and seniors has almost completely stopped. Usually, the juniors and seniors don't miss a chance to mess with our minds, do weird things, and generally relax with us (in a wierd, upperclassman, sort of way). It's fun, and it gives me a chance to practice not smiling in the hallway.
I'm still doing alright here, but I'm exhausted. I think I've stayed awake through one whole class this week, and that was the Air Force class, where bad things happen to those who sleep. The late march-in and lack of tasks should give me a chance to catch up on sleep, though.
To prove that we can be good fish, we have to accomplish a number of goals over the next few weeks. One of those is daily uniform inspections. In one of these inspections, a sophomore goes over you with a notecard and measures your brass, checks your shoes and belt buckle, and generally finds everything that could possibly be wrong. On the notecard, they record all the "cuts" on the uniform so that we can fix them later. In all seriousness, I actually like that part of brass, because my uniform is finally looking how it should. We also can ask questions about how to fix things like deep scratches in brass, scuffs on shoes, and other things like those.
Another thing that's been happening during this week is we're getting smoked a lot more. I'm not sure if it's because it's Corps Brass or what, but we've messed up a lot this week. First, we forgot to run Batfish on Monday. Batfish is the daily delivery of the Battalion, the school newspaper, to our upperclassmen's doors. We had to do a class set (112) of pushupsfor that. The very next day, we forgot again. Another class set. Also, several people didn't do the required amount of Personal Call to Quarters (PCQ) for the week, so we had to do another class set on Friday. Needless to say, we're all more than a little annoyed at the person responsible.
One interesting thing that came out of out Tuesday PT was a six-mile run. We ran from the quad all the way to George Bush Library and back again. I did pretty well, but I can't say the same for all my buddies, or even some of the sophomores and juniors. One sophomore actually complained audibly to his buddies in front of all the fish. Doing better than the upperclassmen in a run makes us all feel great.
Another thing that has changed during Corps Brass is that the good bull from the juniors and seniors has almost completely stopped. Usually, the juniors and seniors don't miss a chance to mess with our minds, do weird things, and generally relax with us (in a wierd, upperclassman, sort of way). It's fun, and it gives me a chance to practice not smiling in the hallway.
I'm still doing alright here, but I'm exhausted. I think I've stayed awake through one whole class this week, and that was the Air Force class, where bad things happen to those who sleep. The late march-in and lack of tasks should give me a chance to catch up on sleep, though.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Looking up?
This week was one of the best I've had so far. The biggest reason was that I didn't mess up any upperclassmen's names, so I had no extra papers to write. As you know, I've had a lot of trouble with that in the past. The weather has also been a bit nicer, with temperatures recently maxing out at about 70 degrees. You have no idea how much of a difference clear skies and comfortable afternoons makes when you have to be running around outside as often as I do.
Last weekend was "traditions weekend" for Squadron Sixteen, so after getting smoked for a while (though I wasn't there for all of it, courtesy of AFROTC), we were taken out to some of the important statues and historical locations on campus, such as Sully (Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue) and the West Gate Memorial. After We visited those places, we were taken to the Bonfire Memorial and told the story of Tim Kerlee, who died in the collapse. When we got back to the dorm, we were met in our holes by the sophomores, who gave us hand-down bonfire shirts. These shirts are a big deal, since they are the same ones our seniors, juniors, and sophomores wore to bonfire in the past. They also have never been washed, so they smell like a barbecue pit.
This Friday the Air Force ROTC class had nothing to do with anything we would be expected to do in the military. They took us out to the Rec center had paid for us to climb the rock wall for two hours, then said "go have fun". We had a blast. That rock wall beats the socks off of any I've done before, as it has at least ten different ways to climb, as well as obstacles like backwards angling walls, overhangs, and one spot which has a ridge you have to climb around (it's a lot harder than it sounds). By the end of that session, my arms were exhausted and they're still prone to cramping up if I grab something too hard.
Training has been going about the same as usual, though I think they're having a little more trouble finding things to smoke us about. There's been a couple of hard smokings due to a couple of my buddies doing stupid things like playing World of Warcraft during CQ, or pinning their wheets, both of which are "honor violations", the hardest category of smoking we can get. Needless to say, everyone was pretty mad when they heard about one of our buddies playing games during CQ. The most expressed sentiment is "If you're going to play games, at least aviod doing it during the time you're most likely to be caught".
Since the smokings have generally been shorter, we are now doing things like rack drills and hallway cleaning drill more often. A rack drill is where you have to remake your bed in a certain amount of time. Usually, we have about seven to eight minutes to make all the beds of the fish who are present. So far, we haven't succeeded once. We are getting closer, but I don't expect we'll actually meet one of those goals until second semester.
Speaking of second semester, did you know that I am now done with one twelfth of my Corps career? That's right, two thirds of the way through first semester and one third of the way through fish year. Can you tell I'm looking forward to Christmas break?
Besides approaching Christmas break, we're getting close to starting our push for Corps brass. Corps brass is the pin that you can see on the collar of upperclassmen, with the helmet and crossed swords. During push for brass, we will be doing a whole lot of PT and various other forms of training. It should finish up about the time of the t.u. game, so we can wear our new Corps brass to Austin. We're also going to begin training to earn the Guidon, but we won't earn that until late next semester.
We have two assignments over the weekend. The first is to obtain the largest pumkin we can physically fit into the dorm. The second is to create a "fish guidon". The fish guidon is apparently a very competitive thing among the Corps, so we're going to spend a lot of time on that over the weekend and next week. I'll try to keep you posted on how Corps brass, fish guidon, and "Mr. O'Lantern" are going, so expect an update somtime next weekend.
Last weekend was "traditions weekend" for Squadron Sixteen, so after getting smoked for a while (though I wasn't there for all of it, courtesy of AFROTC), we were taken out to some of the important statues and historical locations on campus, such as Sully (Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue) and the West Gate Memorial. After We visited those places, we were taken to the Bonfire Memorial and told the story of Tim Kerlee, who died in the collapse. When we got back to the dorm, we were met in our holes by the sophomores, who gave us hand-down bonfire shirts. These shirts are a big deal, since they are the same ones our seniors, juniors, and sophomores wore to bonfire in the past. They also have never been washed, so they smell like a barbecue pit.
This Friday the Air Force ROTC class had nothing to do with anything we would be expected to do in the military. They took us out to the Rec center had paid for us to climb the rock wall for two hours, then said "go have fun". We had a blast. That rock wall beats the socks off of any I've done before, as it has at least ten different ways to climb, as well as obstacles like backwards angling walls, overhangs, and one spot which has a ridge you have to climb around (it's a lot harder than it sounds). By the end of that session, my arms were exhausted and they're still prone to cramping up if I grab something too hard.
Training has been going about the same as usual, though I think they're having a little more trouble finding things to smoke us about. There's been a couple of hard smokings due to a couple of my buddies doing stupid things like playing World of Warcraft during CQ, or pinning their wheets, both of which are "honor violations", the hardest category of smoking we can get. Needless to say, everyone was pretty mad when they heard about one of our buddies playing games during CQ. The most expressed sentiment is "If you're going to play games, at least aviod doing it during the time you're most likely to be caught".
Since the smokings have generally been shorter, we are now doing things like rack drills and hallway cleaning drill more often. A rack drill is where you have to remake your bed in a certain amount of time. Usually, we have about seven to eight minutes to make all the beds of the fish who are present. So far, we haven't succeeded once. We are getting closer, but I don't expect we'll actually meet one of those goals until second semester.
Speaking of second semester, did you know that I am now done with one twelfth of my Corps career? That's right, two thirds of the way through first semester and one third of the way through fish year. Can you tell I'm looking forward to Christmas break?
Besides approaching Christmas break, we're getting close to starting our push for Corps brass. Corps brass is the pin that you can see on the collar of upperclassmen, with the helmet and crossed swords. During push for brass, we will be doing a whole lot of PT and various other forms of training. It should finish up about the time of the t.u. game, so we can wear our new Corps brass to Austin. We're also going to begin training to earn the Guidon, but we won't earn that until late next semester.
We have two assignments over the weekend. The first is to obtain the largest pumkin we can physically fit into the dorm. The second is to create a "fish guidon". The fish guidon is apparently a very competitive thing among the Corps, so we're going to spend a lot of time on that over the weekend and next week. I'll try to keep you posted on how Corps brass, fish guidon, and "Mr. O'Lantern" are going, so expect an update somtime next weekend.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Various Other
During my time blogging here, I've tended to outline the bare basics of what we've been doing. Now I'd like to tell you some of the other more or less fun things we've done over the past month.
Squadron Sixteen is very much into Bonfire. By the way, you didn't hear that from me, since Bonfire is no longer university affiliated. But anyways, we've been making pots for bonfire. a pot is kinda like a hard hat, but a lot more decorated. Ours look a lot like the sweater that Charlie Brown is always wearing: black with a yellow stripe, and black zigzags inside the yellow stripe. You have no idea what chaos is until you've experienced something like that. We had to get them done over the period of a week, which turned out being a weekend. Over that weekend, we had to get paint, pots, liners, sandpaper (because the pots come with a rough texture that needs to be taken off), and a place to do it all.
Getting the supplies alone took all week, so we weren't able to do anything until after the game that was that weekend (I think it was the Army game). Those of us who had to get up for church in the morning had to finish most of the pot that night, so we were up until about three in the morning. I chose not to stay up, so I had to finish mine on Sunday afternoon, which was rough. I was, however, able to learn from my buddies' mistakes that way, which saved me a few hours along the way.
Another noteworthy event was m16 training with the Air Force. The m16 is the standard issue battle rifle for the United States armed forces, unless you actually plan on getting into combat. Then you'll use an m4, but that's another story. Anyways, for m16 training, we used rifles that had essentially been "dumbed down". They had been converted to shoot .22 caliber bullets instead of the 5.56mm rounds that they normally fire. For those that don't know guns, that's like turning on Ross's Mustang and finding out it has the engine of the Lumina. Basically, the sole purpose of the training was to familiarize us with the was the gun works, but the purpose was defeated because the converted m16's jammed about every third shot. It was a good time, but they really need to train us with real m16's, not dumbed down ones.
We've also had some good bull nights out with Squadron Sixteen as a whole. A few weeks ago was Falcon Night Out, so the entire squadron went out to bowl, then to the Chicken Oil Company for a meal. We got to meet some old "former Falcons", previous members of Squadron Sixteen. They gave us some pointers on how to be better fish, which we have since taken to heart. Basically, these nights out have been a time for the fish and sophomores to relax. Yes, I did say sophomores. Whenever they don't get time off for a while, they start getting annoying. Apparently they're people as well.
One of the pieces of advice that the former Falcons gave us was to every once in a while, do something really, incredibly stupid, and have fun doing it. We've been trying to do that ever since, but it's pretty hard to get up the courage. We did try to recon the skateboard that Mr. Campos (one of our juniors) rides up and down the hall during Call to Quarters. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit in our lockers, so we had to give it back. One of the rules of reconning is if you can't hide it, they can take it back just as easily.
I've also been writing a lot of papers recently. Whenever we really, badly mess up the names of our upperclassmen, we have to write papers of a certain number of differences between them. Those papers can take up a lot of time, so it's advisable not to mix up names. Generally, the papers start at sixteen differences. If we mess up the names again, or do something wrong on the paper, the differences start to add up. I recently had to write two 61 difference papers at a time. Needless to say, I won't be mixing up those upperclassmen again. At least I haven't been doing as bad as Ross did (116 differences) or as badly as my buddy Brewer (160 differences). I also seem to be the only one who can tell Ross apart from Mr. Wiley and Mr. Stitt.
We've also gotten some new responsibilities. Every week, we need to write squad reports. There are six squads of fish in our class, with about four to five fish each. Every week, we need to detail what exams we have coming up, what grades we have gotten back in the past week, a personal goal for each fish, a squad goal for each squad, and a goal for our entire class. Another responsibility (well, we've had this since about the third day of FOW) is blowing calls. Before any official oufit or corps activity, we have to go to the ends of the hallway and yell at the top of our lungs the activity, ofiicer of the day, junior in charge of call to quarters, sophomore of the day, temperature, uniform of the day, and what we will be having for chow (if applicable). It's really easy to mess calls up, especially if you're easily flustered. I actually did a nearly perfect set of calls yesterday and today.
I'm still doing pretty well, and now that I've got most of the upperclassmen's names down well, I shouldn't have to write many more papers. I'm actually starting to do better on my studying (earlier in the semester I had trouble finding time) and have found some interesting sources for help (ever heard of Wikibooks? Their basic calculus textbook is easier to understand than either one I have, if less detailed). I'm really enjoying hanging out with some of my buddies on weekend nights. I was actually surprised at how many are pretty devoted to abstinence and not drinking. One of my buddies (naming no names) actually broke down in tears afte he heard his girlfriend at another university had gotten drunk. Apparently Sixteen tends to attract these kinds of people. I'm really happy with most of them.
Squadron Sixteen is very much into Bonfire. By the way, you didn't hear that from me, since Bonfire is no longer university affiliated. But anyways, we've been making pots for bonfire. a pot is kinda like a hard hat, but a lot more decorated. Ours look a lot like the sweater that Charlie Brown is always wearing: black with a yellow stripe, and black zigzags inside the yellow stripe. You have no idea what chaos is until you've experienced something like that. We had to get them done over the period of a week, which turned out being a weekend. Over that weekend, we had to get paint, pots, liners, sandpaper (because the pots come with a rough texture that needs to be taken off), and a place to do it all.
Getting the supplies alone took all week, so we weren't able to do anything until after the game that was that weekend (I think it was the Army game). Those of us who had to get up for church in the morning had to finish most of the pot that night, so we were up until about three in the morning. I chose not to stay up, so I had to finish mine on Sunday afternoon, which was rough. I was, however, able to learn from my buddies' mistakes that way, which saved me a few hours along the way.
Another noteworthy event was m16 training with the Air Force. The m16 is the standard issue battle rifle for the United States armed forces, unless you actually plan on getting into combat. Then you'll use an m4, but that's another story. Anyways, for m16 training, we used rifles that had essentially been "dumbed down". They had been converted to shoot .22 caliber bullets instead of the 5.56mm rounds that they normally fire. For those that don't know guns, that's like turning on Ross's Mustang and finding out it has the engine of the Lumina. Basically, the sole purpose of the training was to familiarize us with the was the gun works, but the purpose was defeated because the converted m16's jammed about every third shot. It was a good time, but they really need to train us with real m16's, not dumbed down ones.
We've also had some good bull nights out with Squadron Sixteen as a whole. A few weeks ago was Falcon Night Out, so the entire squadron went out to bowl, then to the Chicken Oil Company for a meal. We got to meet some old "former Falcons", previous members of Squadron Sixteen. They gave us some pointers on how to be better fish, which we have since taken to heart. Basically, these nights out have been a time for the fish and sophomores to relax. Yes, I did say sophomores. Whenever they don't get time off for a while, they start getting annoying. Apparently they're people as well.
One of the pieces of advice that the former Falcons gave us was to every once in a while, do something really, incredibly stupid, and have fun doing it. We've been trying to do that ever since, but it's pretty hard to get up the courage. We did try to recon the skateboard that Mr. Campos (one of our juniors) rides up and down the hall during Call to Quarters. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit in our lockers, so we had to give it back. One of the rules of reconning is if you can't hide it, they can take it back just as easily.
I've also been writing a lot of papers recently. Whenever we really, badly mess up the names of our upperclassmen, we have to write papers of a certain number of differences between them. Those papers can take up a lot of time, so it's advisable not to mix up names. Generally, the papers start at sixteen differences. If we mess up the names again, or do something wrong on the paper, the differences start to add up. I recently had to write two 61 difference papers at a time. Needless to say, I won't be mixing up those upperclassmen again. At least I haven't been doing as bad as Ross did (116 differences) or as badly as my buddy Brewer (160 differences). I also seem to be the only one who can tell Ross apart from Mr. Wiley and Mr. Stitt.
We've also gotten some new responsibilities. Every week, we need to write squad reports. There are six squads of fish in our class, with about four to five fish each. Every week, we need to detail what exams we have coming up, what grades we have gotten back in the past week, a personal goal for each fish, a squad goal for each squad, and a goal for our entire class. Another responsibility (well, we've had this since about the third day of FOW) is blowing calls. Before any official oufit or corps activity, we have to go to the ends of the hallway and yell at the top of our lungs the activity, ofiicer of the day, junior in charge of call to quarters, sophomore of the day, temperature, uniform of the day, and what we will be having for chow (if applicable). It's really easy to mess calls up, especially if you're easily flustered. I actually did a nearly perfect set of calls yesterday and today.
I'm still doing pretty well, and now that I've got most of the upperclassmen's names down well, I shouldn't have to write many more papers. I'm actually starting to do better on my studying (earlier in the semester I had trouble finding time) and have found some interesting sources for help (ever heard of Wikibooks? Their basic calculus textbook is easier to understand than either one I have, if less detailed). I'm really enjoying hanging out with some of my buddies on weekend nights. I was actually surprised at how many are pretty devoted to abstinence and not drinking. One of my buddies (naming no names) actually broke down in tears afte he heard his girlfriend at another university had gotten drunk. Apparently Sixteen tends to attract these kinds of people. I'm really happy with most of them.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Living for the weekend
This past couple of weeks, our class seems to have messed up a lot of things. First, it was Campusologies (campos for short). Campos are those facts about Texas A&M that all cadets are required to know, and generally learn during fish year. We have been assigned three per week since the start of the semester, and we have not yet managed to memorize all of them by the end of the week. Our Sophomores finally got mad enough about it to start making us push every time we mess up. Last training, we messed up almost every campo we were asked. That would have been the hardest training we've had yet, but we had to get ready for a march-in past Dr. Murano's (the new A&M president) house.
Also, we've been consistently messing up with the Guidon. The Guidon is the flag that is held in front of our outfit whenever we march in. The Guidon Bearer is a sophomore, and the fish are not allowed to go anywhere near him while he's holding the Guidon. You would think that a six-foot-someodd Sophomore holding a six-foot flag would be hard to miss, but he somehow manages to hide at the end of the hall behind some of his buddies. I'm pretty sure he does it intentionally, too. Guidon smokings are the hardest we've had, and we're in for some more on Monday.
On the other hand, the good bull is starting to rack up. On Tuesday night, we gave Mr. Schubert, one of our Juniors, a swirly to commemorate his birthday. While we were dragging him out of his room, Ross handed me one of his uniform parts to bargain for privileges with. This kind of dealing is called reconning, and it's something to take pride in. Usually, it's started by the fish, but I think Ross thinks we need to start pulling this kind of thing out more often. Unfortunately, we have to earn the right to bargain by doing PT. The way it goes (or so I've gathered, we haven't actually done the bargaining yet) is we push for however many privileges we can stand. Monday's going to be rough, but at least it'll be worth it.
Also, this morning, instead of normal outfit PT, we went to the Rec center and did our PT there. It was a choice of whatever you could do at 5:45 in the morning, so Ross and a couple of other upperclassmen started an indoor soccer game. That was probably the best game of soccer I've played in years. When we were done, Mr. Martin, the head yell leader and one of our Seniors, gave me and a couple of my buddies who couldn't walk very well a ride back to the dorm.
I've not had any time this week to do anything, thanks to a couple of papers I have yet to get right. I've gotten to the point where I've told Mr. Towns, the Sophomore to who I owe the papers, that he's just going to have to wait until I can can catch up on my homework. Fortunately for me, in our outfit that's a legitimate excuse. Mr. Porier, our Commanding Officer, has announced that we're pushing for the Joleen award this year. The Joleen award is the award that goes to the outfit with the best scholastics. It's very hard for our outfit to get, being an engineering outfit and still taking training seriously.
This is probably the first time this week I've had to actually goof off, so I'm enjoying it thoroughly. We also got Junior privileges from one of our Seniors because we agreed not to tackle her after Arch Yell. That means I can listen to music and play games, not wear fish dress, not get on the wall, walk in the hallways, talk in the hallways, and generally act mostly like a normal human being. It's great.
Also, we've been consistently messing up with the Guidon. The Guidon is the flag that is held in front of our outfit whenever we march in. The Guidon Bearer is a sophomore, and the fish are not allowed to go anywhere near him while he's holding the Guidon. You would think that a six-foot-someodd Sophomore holding a six-foot flag would be hard to miss, but he somehow manages to hide at the end of the hall behind some of his buddies. I'm pretty sure he does it intentionally, too. Guidon smokings are the hardest we've had, and we're in for some more on Monday.
On the other hand, the good bull is starting to rack up. On Tuesday night, we gave Mr. Schubert, one of our Juniors, a swirly to commemorate his birthday. While we were dragging him out of his room, Ross handed me one of his uniform parts to bargain for privileges with. This kind of dealing is called reconning, and it's something to take pride in. Usually, it's started by the fish, but I think Ross thinks we need to start pulling this kind of thing out more often. Unfortunately, we have to earn the right to bargain by doing PT. The way it goes (or so I've gathered, we haven't actually done the bargaining yet) is we push for however many privileges we can stand. Monday's going to be rough, but at least it'll be worth it.
Also, this morning, instead of normal outfit PT, we went to the Rec center and did our PT there. It was a choice of whatever you could do at 5:45 in the morning, so Ross and a couple of other upperclassmen started an indoor soccer game. That was probably the best game of soccer I've played in years. When we were done, Mr. Martin, the head yell leader and one of our Seniors, gave me and a couple of my buddies who couldn't walk very well a ride back to the dorm.
I've not had any time this week to do anything, thanks to a couple of papers I have yet to get right. I've gotten to the point where I've told Mr. Towns, the Sophomore to who I owe the papers, that he's just going to have to wait until I can can catch up on my homework. Fortunately for me, in our outfit that's a legitimate excuse. Mr. Porier, our Commanding Officer, has announced that we're pushing for the Joleen award this year. The Joleen award is the award that goes to the outfit with the best scholastics. It's very hard for our outfit to get, being an engineering outfit and still taking training seriously.
This is probably the first time this week I've had to actually goof off, so I'm enjoying it thoroughly. We also got Junior privileges from one of our Seniors because we agreed not to tackle her after Arch Yell. That means I can listen to music and play games, not wear fish dress, not get on the wall, walk in the hallways, talk in the hallways, and generally act mostly like a normal human being. It's great.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Privileges
Well, things have been going alright in the Corps so far. In fact, we've done well enough that we've earned some new "privileges". In the Corps, privileges work differently than the name implies. They're not things you can do, they're things you must do. It's also really good "bull" to get them done. Dont' worry that's not an obscene reference, it refers to good times with the upperclassmen. Usually good bull is between the fish and the seniors or juniors, and almost never with the sophomores.
So, this weekend we earned the "right" to do our first class set of pushups. For us, the class of 2012, a class set is 112 pushups. It's really hard, but they don't have to be perfect pushups. By doing our first class set, we earned our first slapboard. A slapboard is a wooden board hanging from the ceiling with mottos written on them. We have earned the slapboard closest to the stairs on the north end of the dorm. The idea behind a slapboad is that you slap it whenever you pass beneath it. It's a lot bigger deal than it sounds.
The other set of privileges we earned was a temporary set of junior privileges. We won our fish football game this weekend, so whoever showed up got the same privileges that a junior would have, such as the right to be out of uniform in the hallway, the right to walk in the hallway, and other related things. Temporary privileges are awarded based on some kind of good behavior, or (apparently) can be bargained for with a piece of upperclassmen's property (known as a recon). Another example of temporary privileges is if we catch a squirrel and bring it back to the dorm without hurting it, we get senior privileges for a week. So it's not uncommon to see fish chasing squirrels around.
I'm still doing pretty well personally. I'm enjoying being done with my history paper and I'm almost certain I aced my physics exam. I also have a math exam on Thursday, so I'm studying hard for that. I'm also likely to pass the next physical fitness test I take, shich is a big deal because I couldn't when I got here. I'm a lot better at pushups than I once was.
So, this weekend we earned the "right" to do our first class set of pushups. For us, the class of 2012, a class set is 112 pushups. It's really hard, but they don't have to be perfect pushups. By doing our first class set, we earned our first slapboard. A slapboard is a wooden board hanging from the ceiling with mottos written on them. We have earned the slapboard closest to the stairs on the north end of the dorm. The idea behind a slapboad is that you slap it whenever you pass beneath it. It's a lot bigger deal than it sounds.
The other set of privileges we earned was a temporary set of junior privileges. We won our fish football game this weekend, so whoever showed up got the same privileges that a junior would have, such as the right to be out of uniform in the hallway, the right to walk in the hallway, and other related things. Temporary privileges are awarded based on some kind of good behavior, or (apparently) can be bargained for with a piece of upperclassmen's property (known as a recon). Another example of temporary privileges is if we catch a squirrel and bring it back to the dorm without hurting it, we get senior privileges for a week. So it's not uncommon to see fish chasing squirrels around.
I'm still doing pretty well personally. I'm enjoying being done with my history paper and I'm almost certain I aced my physics exam. I also have a math exam on Thursday, so I'm studying hard for that. I'm also likely to pass the next physical fitness test I take, shich is a big deal because I couldn't when I got here. I'm a lot better at pushups than I once was.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Football Weekend
As you may have noticed, last weekend was my first Aggie football game as a member of the Corps. With football weekends come quite a hectic schedule, though not quite as bad as the rest of the week.
The football weekend really starts on Friday night at Midnight Yell (don't bother asking what time it's at). At Midnight Yell, we get to hang out for a bit in Kyle Field and yell our heads off. We also get stories and jokes from the Yell leaders. It's a great time, but I wish it was a little earlier, because we got up at 5:15 that morning. Needess to say, on Saturday I was exhausted.
On Saturday morning we had to get up early for marching practice, since this would be our first real march in. You could tell the upperclassmen were fairly nervous from the way they frantically rearranged, reorganized, and yelled at us. Even all the practice didn't do the job, since one or two fish were still out of step during the march around Kyle. We had a brief period after the march in to gather water and tickets before going to the game itself. During that time I was supposed to get a picture with Ross and Caleb, but Ross never showed up. Apparently he had to be in "boot line", when the seniors make a path for the football players onto Kyle.
The game itself was not that great. With about ten minutes to go the Aggies were up 14-9, so all the fish started to take the brass off of their uniforms and head to the field level to tackle the Yell Leaders. When the Aggies win, the fish are supposed to chase down and tackle the Yell Leaders, then take them to the Fish Pond and throw them in. Unfortunately for us, Arkansas came back with four minutes left and all us fishies were left standing awkwardly on the edge of the field.
In other news, I've been doing a lot of boot pulling. When the seniors come back from class and want to get out of uniform, they cannot get their boots off on their own. So they call for a fish to pull boots. It's a win-win situation, since the senior can get his boots off and the ifsh is often rewarded with some candy or just some normal talking time with a senior. Occasionally they'll also give tips on uniform care or time management. It's worth the effort.
I personally am still doing fine, though I expect life is not going to be so easy for much longer. We've been having major messups all week which means we're going to get smoked a lot, and I couldn't manage to get enough pushups to pass my Physical Fitness Test, so I'm on remedial PT. That means every day I'll be getting up an hour leader and training with some really mad sophomores.
The football weekend really starts on Friday night at Midnight Yell (don't bother asking what time it's at). At Midnight Yell, we get to hang out for a bit in Kyle Field and yell our heads off. We also get stories and jokes from the Yell leaders. It's a great time, but I wish it was a little earlier, because we got up at 5:15 that morning. Needess to say, on Saturday I was exhausted.
On Saturday morning we had to get up early for marching practice, since this would be our first real march in. You could tell the upperclassmen were fairly nervous from the way they frantically rearranged, reorganized, and yelled at us. Even all the practice didn't do the job, since one or two fish were still out of step during the march around Kyle. We had a brief period after the march in to gather water and tickets before going to the game itself. During that time I was supposed to get a picture with Ross and Caleb, but Ross never showed up. Apparently he had to be in "boot line", when the seniors make a path for the football players onto Kyle.
The game itself was not that great. With about ten minutes to go the Aggies were up 14-9, so all the fish started to take the brass off of their uniforms and head to the field level to tackle the Yell Leaders. When the Aggies win, the fish are supposed to chase down and tackle the Yell Leaders, then take them to the Fish Pond and throw them in. Unfortunately for us, Arkansas came back with four minutes left and all us fishies were left standing awkwardly on the edge of the field.
In other news, I've been doing a lot of boot pulling. When the seniors come back from class and want to get out of uniform, they cannot get their boots off on their own. So they call for a fish to pull boots. It's a win-win situation, since the senior can get his boots off and the ifsh is often rewarded with some candy or just some normal talking time with a senior. Occasionally they'll also give tips on uniform care or time management. It's worth the effort.
I personally am still doing fine, though I expect life is not going to be so easy for much longer. We've been having major messups all week which means we're going to get smoked a lot, and I couldn't manage to get enough pushups to pass my Physical Fitness Test, so I'm on remedial PT. That means every day I'll be getting up an hour leader and training with some really mad sophomores.
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