U. S. Navy

I have FINALLY heard a reply from the U.S. Navy, and have been professionally recommended to attend Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. Luckily I reran my fitness test and did it in 13 minutes! That is so exciting for me you really have no idea. In high school I did a mile in 14:30 and NOW I can run a mile and a half in 13 minutes.

YAY! Serious sense of accomplishment there.

More photos from my trip to the beach. This one is what I've had as my desktop background for a while.

Also, I'm going to NYC this weekend, and hopefully going to find some time to visit the U.S.S. Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum. I know, you're all super jealous.

;)

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

More from my Beach Day

Since I had such a lovely day at the beach on Saturday I thought I would post about that again. Mostly because there isn't much else going on with me. Just some reading and writing and exercising. The other stuff that is going on is not at all interesting. I'm waiting for my Navy application results, which should be in by the first week in February. I'm thinking about a possible job in CA. A little cooking... Oh, I'm going night running tomorrow with FERP, which should be fun. And that's really it.

So, the beach was just a wonderful break from mundane for me. I thought I would share a moment with you all from when I was looking at the waves. It reminded me of a recent Radio Lab episode called Numbers.


In this episode the last story (beginning at 43:55) is about a student and his math teacher. They discuss that the calculation of waves is done by using infinity. But to calculate the creation of waves that don't repeat, that die out or that grow, you need a kind of infinity that sits in the space between two numbers; a kind of infinity that isn't just the adding and adding of numbers, but a higher kind of infinity. And when I look at the ocean and I look at waves and the seeming forever-ness that is the sea, I really enjoy the thought that there isn't just infinitesimal space, but that there are infinities which I haven't even imagined yet. Infinities that are so advanced and complex that my mind cannot image them.

ANYWAY, I took a few of the photos from Saturday and entered them in National Geographic's Your Shot contest, which they have every month. They may not win because my camera isn't good enough and because i refuse to digitally enhance my photos, but you never know.

Oh and today I learned something excellent. Platypuses have venom. True story.

Stay safe, don't touch platypuses. And be one with your own infinity.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Physical Fitness Test

Today is my practice PRT for the Navy. The entrance exam to test my Physical Fitness. I'm referring to it from now on as the "Pretty Freaking Tough" Exam cause I somehow have to pull 21 push ups, 58 sit ups and a "fun" run of a mile and a half out of my butt within 20 minutes.

Even though I've been training for this for a while, I have a bad shoulder right now and I'm kind of worried about my ability to pull this off. I just have to remember that I have made it through worse and even when I'm hurting out there on the track, I've hurt worse... like when I had Malaria... or busted my ankle. I can so DO THIS. I want to be an officer in the U.S. Navy. I want to serve my country and my Commander in Chief. I want to lead with distinction. I can do this. This is not the hardest thing I will ever have to do.

So... Good luck to me... I'll update you all later as to my status of pass or fail.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya


RESULTS:
Toe touch: PASS!
Push ups: 37! Excellent
Sit ups: 62! Good
Fun run: 16 minutes (fail) so I get to do it again! :( sick.

Letting Go of the Lobster

This past Memorial Day weekend my mother decided to have lavish lobster dinner (because the lobster was 6.99 a pound, not THAT lavish).

In order to combat sentiments of omnivore hypocrisy, I felt that it was necessary for me to kill my own meal. After boiling the water, I took my lobster out of the bag, and really struggled with putting it in the pot. I had a conversation with the lobster about it being quick and painless and him joining his long lost lobster love in lobster heaven.

After the lobster tried to claw me, only then did I feel his death was justified as "revenge." I stared into his little lobster eyes and counted to three and dunked him in head first, hopefully to his instant death.

How to cook a lobster:
1. buy lobster
2. boil big pot of water
3. put lobster in head first to minimize lobster pain
4. cook 9 minutes per pound
5. eat lobster with butter and side dishes like baked potato, corn on the cob or salad for you healthy people.

I ended up not even eating him, I ate the other lobster. I couldn't eat my lobster, because of the guilt associated with his death.

This experience has in no way hardened me enough to join the armed forces. Just to be clear I am not planning on killing anything else to prepare myself for the marines, it simply makes me think maybe I'm too wimpy.

I did however run five miles on Monday, and felt very motivated by the idea of being a reservist while doing so. In the past few week's I've been going between 3.5 and 4.5 miles and never did 5, so it was really exciting to reach that mark.

In regards to this reservist plan, other things like the Peace Corps, and my top secret "Plan A" (ooooh a blog with mystery!), are still in motion so I plan to talk to a recruiter and see what my options are, but I'm not signing up before I know the results of the other options.

We should end this with something upbeat and funny. *fake fart noise* Too juvenile?

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

How I got here

You know what this needs? I need to grab your attention with something snazzy and upbeat...

**FREE PUPPIES AND KITTENS!**

Did that work? Okay, back to business. As my first post I suppose you need some background.

I am a 23 year old woman. My name is Alya. I have a masters degree. I have traveled all over the world. Blah. Blah. Blah. Due to the recession I have not been able to find a job for five months. Despite the fact that I have sent my resume out to over 300 companies, colleagues, and job listings I get the same messages back. Either I am under-qualified for management positions, overqualified for entry level, or the position is no longer being offered because of the recession, but I would have been on the short list. (insert swearing here). Let's get to something less depressing.

As a result of these events, I have been forced to move into my old bedroom in my parent's house (pathetic, I know... ). We fight every day and my mother doesn't seem to understand that I send out another 3-10 resumes each day just to get the same three responses three months later. Therefore, she complains about me spending money on things like food... and then complains that I am not willing to splurge on shoes... more on that ridiculousness later.

In the meantime, I have taken $1000 and bought stocks. I've made about 15% over the course of two months. I'm not bad at trading, and I should consider a job in this. But the banking and finance jobs are the hardest hit sectors, and since many experienced people were laid off in those sectors, I can't very well break into it now.

Additionally, I also have started running, because that takes up about an hour of my free time every day, and at least then I'm outside. It's an activity that I can do that doesn't cost me any money. I'm trying to find lots of those to compile a list of "free recession activities." Once I've done that, I'll sell the book of free activities for $19.99! Genius! Um... if anyone else does something similar to this I have proof now that I came up with the idea first. Consider yourself foiled!

In order to be effective and set out the purpose of this blog-thing I should write some goals here. I plan to make this blog not only a record of my experience and a tool to advise others how not to proceed, but also to amuse people (mostly myself). I will record any lessons I learn about trading, job hunting, living at home, and dealing with parents who don't see you as an adult, probably some recipes I invent and things about cooking, and anything else I feel is relevant. I also promise not to take myself too seriously, and not to take you all too seriously either.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya