Tomorrow Tuesday morning at 9 a.m I ship out to the MEPS processing station up in Kansas City. The next day I will be shipping out to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for Basic Training and to begin my life as an American Soldier.

There are way too many thoughts going through my head right now, ranging from nervous to excited. I will say though that I'm really pumped and glad that I'll be turning up the speed on my dull life. Serving in the military has been one of my dreams since I was about 4 years old, especially that of being a pilot. I had no idea what I wanted to do in college or how to pay for it, and I had an almost non-existent social life anyway (by choice though, I refused to be a part of any petty high school clique) and drunk frat parties really never appealed to me. I didn't want to keep dragging on with another 4 years of school only to be eternally damned to a desk job. I wanted to do something awesome right out of high school, like decimate the war machines of Iran, North Korea, or whatever other fascists want to screw with us, from the cockpit of an Apache helicopter. So when the Army offered me exactly that, I thought...why not?

So I signed up last year as an Aircraft Electrician and was in the delayed entry program my senior year. In that time I have earned 2 promotions and got $12,000 in cash bonuses. I signed up as an Aircraft Electrician so I can get the Aviation experience needed to apply for the Army's Warrant Officer Flight Training program, which allows qualified non-collegiates the opportunity to fly Army helicopters. I already took the written flight test and passed it, and I plan on hopefully applying 6 months after I get assigned to my unit, which will be August or September of next year. I still plan on taking at least some college though, since the Army will be paying for all my tuition while I'm in.

I think I'll do just fine in a military life. I'm not the rebellious type, I don't mind doing whatever my superior tells me to in order to get paid, as long as it isn't something that would violate my personal conscience. I plan on rebuilding my social life in the Army. I'll meet alot of guys who are in the same boat as I am; fresh out of high school and looking to get their life in order and on the fast track. Maybe I'll even meet some fellow Wiccans (there is surprisingly alot in the military) that I can also connect with on a more spiritual level. Maybe we could form an on-base fellowship group or something.

I've been on Gamespot for about 4 fours now. Most people say that those who spend time talking in online forums or posting blogs are wasting their time. While I'd have to agree to a certain extent, I think I've learned alot about myself from posting on the internet. People are almost always different behind an anonymous screen name than they are in person, since there is no real social consequence for speaking your mind without limits on the internet.

I'd like to thank luckypool04, Booticon, fishdalf, gohantech04, canuck3000, flavort, and all others who have alwasy commented on my blogs. I'll be in Basic Training until sometime in August, and then I immediately go to my job training at Fort Eustis in Virginia. Since you're not allowed to have pretty much anything but a toothbrush in Basic, I'll be without internet access for at least a few months, but no doubt agent401 will be coming back.

Until then, may the God and Goddess bless all of you with a great summer. Seeya.

Today was my 19th birthday. Me and my family didn't really do much. I mostly just got money for gifts since there isn't anything in particular I want right now since I'm leaving for the Army in a couple weeks anyway.

I took my Army PT Test today and passed it. I did 51 push-ups (requirement was 42), 73 sit-ups (requirement was 53), and ran 2 miles in 14:58 (requirement was 16:00) Because I passed I am now a Private First Class. This means I have a higher rank and therefore be getting a higher monthly pay once I leave for Basic Training in a couple weeks. However even more important than the pay to me is the fact that 2 promotions before I even start basic training will look really good when I apply for Warrant Officer Flight Training next year.

I ordered more stuff off of Amazon. I got the season 2 DVD of Future Weapons (really awesome show), and some old computer games, mostly so if they allow me to have my laptop in my MOS training I'll have some games to play

One game I got was Soldier of Fortune 2, which was released back in 2002 or 2003. Even though the graphics and A.I suck by today's standards, I love it anyway because it's pure old school FPS; where the story didn't matter as long as you shot terrorists in a variety of locations with a variety of weapons. I have alot of nostalgia for the old Soldier of Fortune and James Bond shooters because they were just unadultered terrorist-blasting fun in everywhere from streets to jungles to underwater bases. Nowadays most FPSs are way too gimmicky or take themselves too seriously with their story.

I also got Iron Warriors, which is a tank simulater where you command a T-34, T-55, or T-72 tanks on the Serbian side of the Balkans conflict. I haven't played much of it yet. It's more complicated than I usually like my games to be, but it looks like a pretty cool game so I'll give it a shot.

I also ordered Apache Air Assault, a helicopter simulater, but it hasn't arrived yet.

...but I finally got my high school diploma today.

To be honest, I wasn't all teary-eyed and emotional, in fact through most of the graduation ceremony I felt like falling asleep. I guess I've just been anticipating this for so long that it just seemed seamless. I also don't have many close friends here that I'm going to leave behind when I go to the Army either. I'm just eager to get out of this town and move onto better things in my life.

I finally gave in and got an ipod last week. I figured that it would be a nice thing to have since I'm going to be travelling around alot. It's a silver 3rd generation nano, and I got a nice leather case for it. I got all the Halo soundtracks uploaded onto it.

Well I'm back from the Busines Professionals of America competition in Reno. It was fun, but unfortunately somewhat mediocre compared to the competition in New York City last year. Reno isn't really a bad place, but for a school trip there just wasn't anything to do there. It does have nice mountains, but we didn't get to go up on any of them.

My school got some awards this year, but not as many as last year. I might get a few pictures I took if I get the time.

I only got 2 days of high school left. My graduation ceremony is on Sunday. We have practice for it on Wednesday.

Sorry it's been over a month since my last blog. I've been very busy with many different things and am not having much time for internet recreation more.

Like half the people in America right now, my free time is occupied with GTA 4. Despite my many years of gaming I've never played a GTA game before because they just didn't appeal to me. However when perfect 10 reviews for GTA 4 started popping up on all the major gaming sites, I knew that this was the next big thing that I shouldn't miss out on. I was worried that Gamestop would be sold out since I didn't pre-order it, but I went anyway and luckily they still had it. I'm going to make this quick and not repeat everything all the reviews already said; this game is FANTASTIC. Everything about it, the gameplay, story, characters, graphics, music, is all so well done and comes across as a masterpiece that is unparalled. My only complaint is that it is so huge that it can be overwhelming to someone like me who has never played a GTA game before, only because there's so much to do. Oh I'm going to have a hell of a lot of fun with this one.

I'm going to go through alot of big events in my life over the next few weeks. Next week I am going with my school's BPA (Business Professionals of America) team to Reno for the national BPA competitions. I am going to compete in the Payroll Accounting Event this year. We are staying at a very nice resort that will have alot of fun activities. One of them that i'll be doing is Kayaking.

When I get back Sunday the 11th I'll only have 2 days of my senior year left. My graduation ceremony is the following Sunday and my family is going to hold a graduation reception for me and my friends. My recruiter said that he will come to my graduation ceremony in his dress uniform and may also come to the reception.

But just because I graduate doesn't mean it'll be total relaxation time, quite the opposite actually. A few weeks later on June 11th I ship out to Basic Training for the Army. I'm going to need to do some serious physical workouts the last few weeks I'm at home. While I can already easily meet the initial physical fitness requirements for Basic, I have the chance to get promoted to E-3 (Private First Cl-ss) before I go to training. However to get this I have to pass a PT test consisting of 42 push-ups, 53 sit-ups, and running 2 miles in 16 minutes. I got the push-ups and sit-ups down, it is the running that worries me. While I can run a 7-minute mile, I never ran 2 full miles before. I'll just have to practice and try my best I guess. I am really wanting to pass this PT test and get that promotion. Not only because of a better pay and rank, but it will look good when I apply to Warrant Officer Flight Training sometimes shortly after I get assigned to my unit next year.

This is also the last weekend of working my part-time job at Texas Roadhouse. This was my first job that I have held for over 2 and a half years (unusually long for a high school job). While the pay and work itself wasn't that great, I had a good time working there and have worked with alot of really cool people. I'm going to miss them, but I'm also looking forward to all the new things I'll soon be moving on to.