A Negative that is a Positive

Did you ever have a teacher that finally made things *click* for you when trying to learn something that was just beyond your grasp? A teacher that went out of their way to help, to let you be creative, to let your inner-nerd escape? To let you perform experiments and build machines during recess while everyone else is outside playing on the monkey bars?

I did.

I first met Mrs. Street when I was sitting outside My 2nd grade teacher's door, tasked to complete the math homework I didn't finish the night before. I didn't understand the negative numbers that were new to me at the time, and was too embarassed to ask help with.

She walked by me and asked why I was sitting outside the door. Thinking that I was about to be in more trouble for being outside the classroom decided to be honest about things. I told her that I did not understand my math assignment.

"Oh, that's the easiest part of numbers! They just start going backwards when you go behind the zero!"

"Behind the zero?" I asked.

"Yes, let me show you what I mean, I show this to all my 3rd graders!" she replied rather enthusiastically.

Enter the Number Line. Mrs. Street showed me a single line starting from zero and going up to the number 5, each number having their own dot along the line.

Ok, got it.

Then she warped my mind by putting a -1 to the left of the zero with it's own dot on the line. And then a -2, then a -3....it was madness. It might have been SPARTA!

After she let me figure out the rest of my homework...by myself...she let me go back into the classroom and annouce to my teacher that I would never have a problem with my negative numbers again. And I didn't.

Skip ahead a few years...

Even long after I had passed her class, I kept returning to give model rocket demonstrations for the kids in her class. She had such an impact on my life as a student that I would continue to visit her, even when I was home on leave from the military. I only wish that I was a slightly better student after her class.

Although, I hope she knew that with her help so early in my learning development, I was able to breeze through all my schooling in the Navy and become the head of my class for maintaining and operating the most advanced radar on US Navy Aegis Cruisers and Destroyers. Through this radar we are able to Track and, if needed, detroy ballistic missiles aimed to destroy people or cities traveling well over 5 times the speed to sound. It's like hitting a bullet...with another bullet....in space. How's that for someone that loved to build model rockets growing up?

Thank you Mrs. Jackie Street, I will remember you always for what you taught me and will pass those things to my own daughter.

By the Way, Mrs. Street, my radar's sensitivity is measured in negative numbers.

In the Name of our Ford

*Sigh*....it's a really good thing I brought a coffee maker underway, otherwise I would never make it on the night watches. I'm on auto-pilt on nights like this, which isn't bad, just...bleh. I'm starting to look forward to the watch rotation because it gives me time to work on whatever I need, and I have a looooong time to think to myself.

I've been doing a lot of thinking to myself about the similarities between today's USA and the novel, "1984" by George Orwell. We've even got some quotes written on the console screen. Quotes like "Beware the Thought Police", "Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength". Substitute Ford is "Big Oil", and you've got yourself a manifesto. Keeping the nation at war for nationalism and controlling what the public know about events. I need to read that book again.

Time for watch...

Closure?

I remember where I was when the towers fell, I remember what went through my mind as well. I was a civilian then.

Yes, I'm damned proud to see this day as a member of the armed forces.

I only hope it doesn't serve as a rallying call of a martyr.

Reflecting on the departure

Well the past few days have seemed to pass as slowly as January molasses, but it also seems so long ago that I left them on the pier. At least things seem to be passing a little more quick. With any luck it'll seem like the days are flying by before too much longer.

This is a picture of Andrew and I the day we left port. We're smiling only because there's a camera.

Need...coffee....braaaaiiiiiinnnnssssssss

I'm up an hour earlier than I meant to be, no thanks to me not adjusting my clock for all the danged time zones we keep crossing. Eh well, gives me time to make some coffee. So, listening to Archers of Loaf, brewing some coffee, and looking at good news to see if there's anything worth reading about...apparently not. Honestly,I could not give two shits about the royal couple. Now there's all the opinion articles on the poor(now rich) girl's wedding dress. I seem to remember that the news had more coverage on that event than the earthquakes/tsunami in Japan when it was breaking news. Anger.

I will be posting some pictures soon of Andrew and my own's experience of Hawaii. I have to wait until I receive my laptop power cable in the mail that my darling wife is sending me. Yes....I forgot the very object that power my computer, I like to think I had a lot on my mind when I was packing for 6 month's worth of underway time.

I miss my girls, I miss kissing my wife on the cheek every morning before I leave for work. I miss watching Shelby trying to holding my massive Nerf gun than stand a good three heads taller than her and saying "got you, daddy!". I'm never leaving them behind ever again. Of course I can't say never, but I'll never have to leave them for 6 months at a time.

~chase

Hi, my name is Bill Murray. Welcome to Groundhog Day.

So, almost a half month into this little deployment. Try as I might, I can't make the days pass any faster. Although a good sign is showing itself, the days are starting to blur together. Three days can pass at a time before I realise how much time is passing. So yeah, welcome to my world, Groundhog Day as it were. Trying to keep myself sane and balance, though I really have a lack of motivation as depression has started to set in a little. I can tell through my interactions with people, I don't feel like excercising or doing much more than standing watch and sleeping.

I think it hit me just the other day when I was writing a hand-written letter to my daughter just how much we as people has lost in communication when we've done nothing but enhance communication in the past 15 years! Yes, we write emails and texts, all the while cutting back on everything else. Hell, I ran into someone before I left that said they would rather text a person than call them anymore.

In my opinion, the hand-written word hold higher value now more than ever. When's the last time you received a written letter, cards don't count...an honest written-out letter. I love my aunt Glennie, but sometimes she can drive my father to the drink, hah! She recently had sent my daughter a Cabbage Patch doll in the mail that was lost in delivery. In an inquiry to the location of said doll, she hand-wrote a letter to the residence of our address pleading a safe return of said way-ward child. I'm not always old-fashioned, but dammit, some things like good handwriting and grammar should come back.

I'm rambling now and sounding like a crotchety old man. *sigh* When did I get old?

Changes in attitudes, changes in latitudes...literally

Changes in Latitudes; It's been a few days since we've left Hawaii. It was the very first time that I had ever been, there was so much that I wanted to see...the Arizona Memorial, the Might Mo, the submarine museum, the punchbowl crater. What I actually accomplished out of all that: none.

What I was able to actually do was go an impromptu car trip across the island with Andrew and took some extraordinary pictures of the most scenic island I've ever seen. Pictures to follow. I had no regrets, hell, he even treated me to a couple bottle of Sierra Nevada Torpedoes at the end of the night. Twas a good evening, so I can't even complain that I missed the main sights.

Changes in attitudes; Something I've noticed lately, and call me a hipocrite if you must, but more and more some country music speaks more powerfully to me than it did before. Namely the Zac Brown Band on "The Foundation" record. Maybe I'm just missing some of the simple things I used to take for granted about living in the mountains. But it also seems like as soon as I left that area I starting missing it. So, maybe it's just my fickle being afterall.

On another note, I finally got around to calling one of the eletrician's mates to come take a look at our lights in my office space. It longer looks like an alley where homeless folks would reside. Although, if you ever just look into the array room to see us SPY techs watching TV or playing games, it would definately look like we were desistitute(sp?). All of us just laying where there is a bit of cushion, like rags...huddling for warmth from the cold handsof the A/C that keeps our space just under a comfortable temperature of 35 degrees...

I miss my girls something terrible. Laura tells me that Shelby says "Goodnight, I love you!" to my image on the DVD of bedtime stories that I made her before I left. I cried a little when she told me that, a happy kind of cry though.

~chase