The infamous Softball Incident

Providing a stable role model for a group of twenty-something males (men seemed like a stretch in this case) is not an easy task. Couple the obvious hurdle of kids barely out of their teens away from home and on their own for the first time with the extra bonus of being locked in a tube a few hundred feet below the surface of the ocean.

Generally the older a Submariner gets, the more he becomes an all around surly individual. The grand colloquialisms spew from his mouth as a way of teaching the younger generations about the dangers of OPSEC and slamming toilet seats. There are the few exceptions though. George was an older salt: white hair, a little softer around the edges, but still as sharp as ever with a vitality that some of the younger guys would have loved to have.

George led his men through some of the more trying times a submariner can face, namely port and starboard watches. For one reason or another George's division kept coming up short on people. A mast here, a sailor going UA (Unauthorized absence) there, someone crying to the Chaplain about work being too hard. Whatever the reason, George had to lead people who were overworked and under compensated.

While most Chiefs would come to Quarters, divvy up the tasks for the day and then go hide out in the Chief's quarters until lunch, George stuck with his men. He not only taught them, he worked along side them. I would have killed to have a Chief like George.

Because of his apparent fondness for us dirty blue shirts George was the black sheep in the Chief's quarters, and we all knew it. When George asked us to do something, whether we worked for him or not, we tried our damnedest to get it done. We knew that George went out of his way to ensure we were not getting the short end of the stick, and for that each one of us was grateful.

One eventful day the entire Engineering department was, across the board, doing some pretty detailed maintenance when who should stroll through the engine room but the COB (Cheif of the whole Damned Boat), the enemy of all Nukes. Rather than siphoning carcinogenic water (used for reactor shielding) from a holding tank into big yellow buckets he saw us gaffing off his cleaning list. We were neglecting his engine room, not performing underway limiting emergent maintenance. As far as he knew, all the Nukes cut out early to go play on our newly minted softball team.

When we all got to work the next day there was something in the air (other than the Amine) that just didn't feel right. It turns out that the COB had read the riot act to the Nuke Chiefs (via email) about our poorly run engine room (apparently an engine room must be shiny to work properly) and was up in arms about our department leaving to play softball while his Forward Area Guys (Coners a.k.a the guys who steer the boat/bend periscopes)came back to do our cleaning. Mind you this is the same guy who, when we were doing submarine things and a tool box took out one of our Torpedomen in the Torpedo room ran back aft to yell at us for poor stowage.

Moral of the story is that any non-emergent work was put on hold so we could herd Dustalos (an inter-species hybrid of Dust Bunnies and the American Bison). While a complaining Sailor is generally a happy Sailor, this hit us hard. We were crushed with all our work, and now this.

George, in a show of solidarity, printed the email form the COB and posted it throughout the engine room. He gladly passed out copies of the email to all who wanted them. He said that if we were to be persecuted, we should at least know why.

George, with his white (sometimes mahogany) hair, and his unwavering moral compass, is the type of leader a man would love to follow. What's more, he is an example for future leaders to learn from.

Adult Content

There was a time when that annoying little black box with TV MA, or TV Y, or any other variety of TV rating, did not appear in the upper corner of the screen during our favorite television shows.

The reasoning behind this move towards content rating can be traced back to Tipper Gore's crusade to protect our children from questionable music retailed without warnings. Tipper worked to ensure a little black box would appear on our music, ensuring parents wouldn't go out and buy their kids Judas Priest or Motley Crue albums without thinking twice. While the uproar Tipper's war caused within the music industry caused more than a few ripples, it also paved the way for the transformation of television rating.

The incorporation of television content ratings can be attributed to shows like the Simpsons and Power Rangers becoming increasingly popular with children. The battle cry was a need to better monitor our children's intake of sex, violence, and otherwise detrimental material.

Mind you, this was all before the advent of the Internet we know today. A parent could not Google a synopsis of a show to determine its compatibility with their views on what children should or should not watch. In my house there was a definite shift in viewing habits before and after the inclusion of content ratings.

It seemed that my parents were trying to shield me from what other parents were shielding their children. In a 'keeping up with the Joneses' sort of move we were suddenly unplugged from the popular culture around us. It was now only the 'cool' kids who watched The Simpsons.

This separation of popular culture and home life falls back to one of the many facets of parental responsibilit: the totalitarian control of our children's development. The sole weight of education, emotional development, social integration and life skill development lies with the parent. There are many institutions around to help grow a well-rounded child, but in the end the parents are to blame or to be applauded.

This new content rating system opened the eyes of many parents, and forced them to take note of the types of material their children were watching. To this day it continues to assist parents with selecting appropriate shows for their children. To my dismay this doesn't stop networks from producing more reality shows and less educational shows.

I don't think the Discovery Channel, The History Channel, and TLC can wholly live up to the standard their names seem to imply, but that is a discussion for another time.

Cedar and the Lube oil King

I have seen people work their fingers to the bone and get nothing more than a high-five.

I have seen the people who delegate responsibility receive more accolades than I care to count.

I have seen some of the dirtiest grease monkeys earn some of the shiniest medals.

The fact of the matter is that sometimes credit is not given where credit is due. It is a product of the work environment we place ourselves into. Extremes rarely dominate any area of the work place though, and we can expect that sometimes we will receive our comeuppance, and sometimes we will need to take a back seat to other people's (sometimes undeserved) spotlight.

Picture it: Haze grey and underway, 2009. I was working hard at expanding my repertoire of useful skills by assisting a short handed division. I would stand their watches and perform some of their maintenance. I replaced large components, I replaced valves, I trained their junior personnel in the art of making water. I quickly became one of their 'go to guys' for all sorts of technical issues, and I was seen as one of the 'in crowd'.

This embattled division eventually overcame some pretty big challenges; challenges that would have staggered a fully manned team. What's more, they did it with style and class. Naturally, when it came time to receive awards for all their hard work they were graced with awards all around. The problem came when they had to admit someone (me), who was not part of their group, had a big hand in their success. It seems that it was bad form to admit they had received help. It turns out the divisional leadership didn't want to send the message that they had a weakness, and that I had helped fill a void.

The exception was Cedar the Terrible. Cedar, a leader within his division, saw my efforts and he genuinely appreciated me. He filed the paperwork for an award for me and was shot down. Again and again he did this, each time the outcome was the same. I remember him coming up to me and saying he tried his best and was still unable to get me the reward I deserved, but he was able to get me a smaller award, a menial one. I gladly accepted his generosity; it wasn't very often that his group of people acknowledged what my group contributed to the overall goal. In fact I remember Cedar telling me that I was in a support division and our main duty was to serve him and his. Never mind all that fancy chemistry and radiological controls we had to perform to keep NAVSEA08 off the Captain's back. Either way, an 'atta boy' from him was generally hard to come by.

Cedar used some typical Cedar methods to ensure I received a three day special liberty pass (the fine print said I could only use it in conjunction with a weekend and i had to find someone to stand my duty...).

While I was grateful for the recognition, albeit slightly skewed from what I actually did, it was still less than pleasant watching the people I had worked arm in arm with get awards for things I had been a part of. On the other hand, it did offer the newer guys a much needed boost of confidence and allowed them to become almost as good at their job as my division was at ours.

Equality 7-2521

For security reasons the government cannot tell us everything. We are expected to trust them in some manners, mainly those pertaining to national security. What then should be our response to the news that we (assuming certain wickets are met) may be targeted by drones?

While it is terrifying to think that imminent death from above could be around the next corner, it is also comforting that those appointed to govern this great country take their oath of office seriously. Our enemies have often come from within, and this step to ensure we are protected from those who wish us harm is a step away from the Rough Men we generally associate with our protection.

While the comfort and disquietude we are offered through these reports often cancel each other out, it is a fair assessment to say that the ever inquisitive and seldom trusting American people desire justification for these actions. The main outlet for the average American is, these days, Internet news or a local news network. Unfortunately these outlets rarely have a central path to their stories. Each article is biased by the writers as well as the overall corporation. There seems to be no single source of news that offers an objective view of facts. General experience dictates reading reports from both sides of the issue and determining an individualistic path. Unfortunately there are people who do not see the value in a differing opinion.

The freedom with which we receive information these days is baffling. It was only a few decades ago that information about an on going military campaign would be held close to the chest. Now it seems that the free dissemination of information requires us to share our guarded secrets with our entire populace. A populace that can, has, and will generate enemies of the state.

A simple remedy can fix this problem, one that has helped many nations quiet their dissident populace. The wonderful practice of censorship brings the freedom of information to a grinding halt. There is no longer the worry of vital secrets or individualistic ideas being spread through the masses. The masses are now told only what the party deems appropriate, peace can be assured.

That is until people become tired of being spoon fed life. People will find their freedom, and they will fiercely protect it.

This is the reason the freedom of information we see in our media is both a blessing and a curse. We can watch as the pure information is twisted by those who are pushing an agenda or we can fight tooth and nail for the freedom the pure information allows. It is not our government that we should fear, but the biased media forcing half truths into our minds.

These are not the drones you are looking for.

Americans love their freedom. There is nothing in this world that so universally describes the American dream than freedom. It is the fundamental belief this country was founded upon. We are all entitled to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, or so the story goes.

It turns out that we are in a perpetual dance with those who want to take our freedom. It seems that there arise certain entities that would remove our freedoms from us little by little and leave us enslaved to their cause with no voice of our own. Often this takes the form of an outside enemy, radical ideology,  or possibly a foreign dictator.

These days we sit securely in our isolation. We are comforted by the fact that we have few enemies capable of reaching our shores, we are complacent in our security. This complacency and comfort comes with a price: Our own paranoia. We see our own government as a threat, we analyze every action or inaction that comes out of the White House and asses it as a threat to our freedom. Generally these threats are evaluated on a party line basis. If we feel especially aligned toward one side or the other we are inclined to react accordingly. For example, my facebook feed is overrun with anti-Obama posts. I cannot go a day without reading about how he is stripping our freedom away while we sit back and watch.

The Drone debate hasn't hit my facebook feed yet, but I can assure you that it will. When it does I will have to wade through all the hatred and disgust in order to determine fact from fiction. On the same token, isn't this what our founding fathers wanted? Didn't they desire us to question our government in order to keep the power with the people?

The problem, as I see it, is that Americans see their rights being stripped in small quantities, and the trend is towards tyranny. Whether or not this is the actual intent is beside the point. Americans perceive their liberty threatened, and they will not stand for it. We have heard the debate over gun control, and now we see drones as a watchful big brother.

Let us presume that gun control and the use of Drones are, in fact, for our benefit, then why would we fight it? Simply put, Americans naturally do not trust our government. It is ingrained in us, our country was born from the hatred of tyranny and the love of freedom. We will fight for our beloved freedom at home and abroad, we will defend our constitution against all enemies until the last man falls. We love this country, every last one of us, and we don't want to see it fall to shambles. Too many men and women have given their lives in the defense of our most sacred freedom to call it quits now.

If the general assumption is made that all Americans love this country, and would do nothing to harm it we can also assume that the government falls into that same cast. From this we can then draw that there is no right or wrong in governing our country provided it is governed with freedom on the heart of every person who leads this country. The trick is to push or pull those governing us towards what we want. On occasion our leaders will lean either left or right, but the middle ground seems to be the place where the most ground towards freedom is gained.

Are the drones necessary over our cities? Do they serve a purpose in war? Does gun control really make us safer? Is the second amendment still relevant? Those questions are all worthy of an answer, but in the end they all boil down to our beautiful democratic process. If we as a country, as Americans exercise our duty, we can rest assured that our voice will be heard. It sounds cliche, but when dealing with something as important as freedom, every voice counts.

So continue to blow up my facebook feed with your views on gun control, abortion, drones, immigration, foreign policy, Republican propaganda, Democratic evangelism, and disco rave invitations. I will not judge you in any way shape or form. I will, however, judge you if you do not use your God given right to freedom to let those who lead us know what you stand for by casting your ballot, signing a petition, or writing your congressmen.

Crisis management

Children require food, shelter, clothing, and an adult to ensure their safety to survive.

When compared to the requirements to thrive, survival looks minimalist at best, and negligent in most lights. To foster an environment which will allow them to flourish the adults and specifically the parents of these children must provide more than the minimum. Parents must provide, love, loyalty, creative outlets, structure, love, understanding, discipline, and a slew of other situational actions and emotions in an attempt to ensure their children do not end up emotionally malnourished, drains on society, or even violent criminals. This is not to say there are not exceptions to these guidelines, there are always exceptions to every rule.

The tricky part of this whole parenting thing is finding the perfect balance based on individual values and desired outcomes. As soon as we figure out the right balance and start to think "This parenting thing isn't that bad, we should have another one..." we are hit with a left hook when our second child is nothing like the first. Parenting styles that work on the first kid may not work with the second, or vice verse.

There is no return policy on children. Generally they are your responsibility for the next eighteen years or so. Contrary to what my mother said, you  can't just take them back to Kmart for a refund. So how do we move forward in our parenting adventure? Simply put, we trudge on until we figure it out.

One method would be to look to our parents for inspiration...then again, my  mom did threaten to return me to Kmart. If we are improve our children's prospects for the future, maybe a look at parents we don't want to be like is also warranted. The parents in the store who let their children run rampant through the aisles and play hide and go seek in the clothes racks seem to be a good candidate for this category. At the same time, I remember those being some pretty fun hide and seek games.

If an undamaged child is something we strive for, maybe we should model ourselves after the rich and famous parents. They should be able to give their children every thing they need to ensure success. Still, it seems there are a higher number of celebrity children who are in therapy, or into drugs, or have some form of severe emotional damage. Maybe giving our children everything isn't the best option.

I guess, in the end, we can only rely on our wits while parenting. In my experience parenting is equal parts hope, dread, love, and terror. We hope our actions are sufficient to give our children every ounce of life skills they deserve, we dread the inevitability of our own humanity in that we will do something that has the potential to destroy their fragile senses of reality. We love them with all that we have, and we are filled with the terror that they won't know that we still love them when they are getting a lecture on why it is not acceptable to color on the walls.

Parenting is a dangerous game. At any moment catastrophe could strike and our children could be ruined. At any moment we could scar them irreparably, and spend the rest of our lives paying therapy bills. On the other hand, I had a less than traditional childhood, and I turned out relatively normal. In fact, I believe that it is the minor emotional scars, the subtle character flaws and the ability to survive any sort of catastrophe my mother threw at me that made me who I am.

The Lady Gaga experiment

Music goes in cycles from new and edgy (relative terms) to commercialized and stale. It seems that the music industry pigeon holes a certain type of music that sells well and over saturates the market. Rather than focus on the truth that can be found in music, the trend seems to be a reproduction of what is already in vogue. Shows such as The Voice and American Idol seem to perpetuate the sound of the moment. On any given season one can count on several incarnations of Adele, Beyonce or Madonna. Each individual standing on the shoulders of giants to make a name for themselves.

MTV and VH1 are not helping the cause of relevant music; they seem to be more interested in reality TV and shock media like Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. It seems as though every time I turn on VH1 (I can't stomach MTV these days) there is another "Greatest hits of the '90s" show on. The most recent count-down I watched was "The 100 greatest women of Music," and while I agree with Madonna being in the number one spot, I cannot agree with many others on that list. The main reason for her continued relevance is that Madonna continuously reinvents herself. The only thing that is constant in her world is her controversy. Still, there is a chance, given enough time, that even Ke$ha could be as influential as Madonna. Only time will tell.

There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon; the advent of YouTube as a medium for sharing music. This wonderful medium does not care if you are OK GO or The Prime Time Band. This new way of sharing music allows innovation; it showcases the individuality of the musicians. While there are still droves of cookie cutter musicians out there, they are vastly out numbered by the kids with a dream to become the next big thing. While they may cover some of the more famous musicians, there is an invariability that they make the song their own.

Even MTV knows the value of innovation. After years of criticism for abandoning their roots of Music Television (funny, that sounds like an acronym waiting to happen...) MTV has partially returned to actual music. There is now an entire channel dedicated to music, sadly it is only one of a couple hundred.

The driving factors behind each step in the musical innovative process are rather easy to see. First off, the void we don't see in music is spontaneously filled with something we never knew we always wanted. For example, we didn't know the necessity of The Beatles until they were established in our hearts. I cannot fathom a world in which Eleanor Rigby does not exist (and that isn't even the most influential of their songs). Before those mop tops from across the pond ruptured our musical traditions, we craved something new. What we wanted was unclear, but we wanted it anyway. depending on your tastes it was either fortunate or unfortunate that each time we advanced into a new musical realm the market quickly became saturated.

Take punk for an example; while it is not the most wide spread flavor of music, it has been influenced by the over saturation of the musical market. When punk burst onto the scene the market was saturated with big hair, spandex and power ballads. The Ramones gave us a way out. Now the market is becoming saturated with big name acts like Green Day, who now have a major Broadway production, so it seems fitting that the next bubble under the alternative music flag is beginning to form before the older bubble becomes irrelevant.

This type of natural leadership follows a Darwinian/survival of the fittest trajectory. It seems that the evolution of music is truly a group effort, and the only way to ensure it flourishes is to continue with the genetic diversification that we have seen in the last few decades. The de-homogenyzing of typical genres of music has lead to a greater diversity of the waves penetrating our ears. The blend of traditional country and rock into rockabilly exemplifies the juxtaposition of two unlikely bedfellows that work, and in a wonderful way.  A dash of this, a smidgen of that... new bands and new genres are forming all the time.

The leader in this situation is the market. When one market is dull, another takes over. The customers drive the innovation, and in the end it all boils down to what makes money and what sells, but at the same time the art should stand on its own and be an individual testament to what drives the artist. The carbon copy artist does nothing to further the diversification of the field, and is eventually weeded out.

Drubber Originale

How do you eat an Elephant? Jimmy Sitz knows.

This guy, Jim, has used every ounce of leadership he possessed to drag me kicking and screaming into a more stable career path.

There was once a time when I questioned every directive. I would obstinately state my opinion on every matter. I yelled. I yelled a lot. I was on a quick track to failure. Every "leader" I came in contact with threw authority at me. They forced me into submission, and it only made things worse.

I remember watching Jim saunter into work his first day. Quiet, unassuming, I instantly hated him; a feeling that would quickly change to admiration and respect.

The group of guys I had been working with had been through a lot together. We had faced every obstacle together, and we survived.

Jim was not happy with survival. He wanted us to be the best. He wanted every single person to envy our success. He wanted our supervisors to sing our praises, and he had a plan on how to get there.

Every new boss had tried to break us down and build us back up to their own standards. They wanted to force change on us and we would have none of it. We made them earn every single inch that they gained.

So what was one more boss?

Jim came in, reviewed our records and watched us. For a week or so he sat back and observed. Then he sat us down and pointed out our strengths. Bob was amazing at drawing samples, Dustin had an incredible program, Nick knew more about this than anyone else, Dave knew all the requirements. Then he showed us where we needed help. While we didn't like it, we went along with it.

We still had our share of fights. I distinctly remember openly yelling at him on numerous occasions, all because I didn't want to to x, y, or z. Still he stuck at it, trudging an up hill battle against us.

The day I came to respect him as a man and as a leader was a normal day. I had openly shown him some form of disrespect (probably more than once), and I was going about my life. Some time during my romp into insubordination someone at the top of the totem pole came and found me. This supervisor pulled me aside and was completely honest with me, a novel approach for his class of people. He said that I was in significant danger of punishment. In fact, he said, the paperwork has been written, and rewritten several times.

Each time I had been on the cusp of implosion, Jimmy had stepped up and taken responsibility for me. He expressed his belief in me. He told the higher ups that he saw small changes that were becoming bigger as the days passed. He didn't want to destroy all the time and effort he had invested in me with something that would send me back to my old ways.

I looked inside myself that night, and what I saw scared me. I saw that I was truly changing. I saw that I was becoming a better man. Not just better at my job, but a better man!

I would love to say that I became the man Jim hoped me to be the very next day, but the sad truth is that it took some time. I did, however make up my mind to learn everything I could about my job, and moreover how Jim elicited such a change in me.

While my study was never fully completed, I can look back on my time with Jim and see a direct change of course. I went from the guy who was destined for punitive actions to the guy who ran the show.

The most important thing I learned from this man is the need for compassion and empathy. Without those two things I would have been lost, and because of them I am back on the right path. Without a doubt Jim has had a huge influence on my life (even today he critiques my beer recipes), and it was all won with baby steps.

Super sassy self assesment

I have a way about me, I like to talk. Unfortunately this doesn't allow much space for other people to squeeze their two cents in. I do try and give a little ground when participating in a group presentation, especially one so loosely scripted. The problem usually arises when I am placed in a group with people less confident in their communication abilities.

All that being said, I believe that there is something to be said for taking charge of the situation. Not that I think the other members of my group incapable, they just seemed less comfortable in their public speaking roles. While I know it is beneficial to everyone involved to encourage growth, I also know it is beneficial to produce a product. The trick is threading that fine line.

I have noticed that there are a few other students who continually (all two times) step up and take a larger speaking role. What their motives are... I can't pretend to say.

to 56k, and beyond!

The fun part of being an older person (I am 27) in a college environment is watching the 'kids' in my class look on in awe when the Professor discusses things like 'life before the internet' and 'reading a newspaper to get your news,' or 'Dial up internet.'

And by fun I mean it hurts me. I had a class with a kid who had no idea who Nirvana was. I mean, really? One of the most iconic bands of the 90's? Wow.

All that aside, life today is much faster and more hectic than ever before. I remember riding to the record store with my stepdad and buying the newest Metallica album on cassette. Nowadays there is no need to drive anywhere to get music. Even if you want to support an artist, you can buy a digital copy of their album on iTunes, or buy an actual CD  through Amazon. One would think that this drastic evolution of technology would equate to more leisure time, or that we would devote more time to bettering the Human condition.

Nope. The Internet has been fully functional (available to pretty much everyone in the U.S., loaded with all sorts of informational goodies, and providing cute pictures of kittens) for over twenty years. The idea of the Internet has been around longer than I have been alive, and we still rush around like ants on a hill. While we have more leisure time, more things are jockeying for our attention. We can play the newest video game online with people on the other side of the planet, all the while screaming obscenities into a wireless head set. We can stream movies right to our phone while sitting in class, and look up the lecture notes on LMS when we get home.

Even Everclear's AM Radio is behind the times. Portable CD player? Please, we now have phones with touch screens, more storage space than my first computer, and the Internet. The inclusion of the Internet alone has has transformed the way we work. Couple the Internet with surprisingly fast processors and full operating systems and you have a truly mobile office. My neighbor said he wrote every paper of his senior year (as a mechanical engineer) on his iPhone.

What's more, we are now restructuring our laws to suit the ever changing landscape that is the Internet. Unfortunately our laws are not as readily adapted to our new technological world as the Human element. We are still playing social catchup, we are figuring out how our laws marry into this techno-scape.

One day we will figure it all out, but by then we will have new problems to overcome. That is what sets us apart from those damn dirty apes (or is it?), we are infinitely adaptable and through our ingenuity we will thrive. How we thrive is still up for debate.

As a side note, I learned that 'Internet' is a proper noun. Thank you spell check, and I suppose Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as well.