We came, we saw and we passed. I would say conquered but both Jon and myself had a few issues during our PV that we were unsure about. The good thing though is that we both passed. That is what we came down here to do and we did it.
We got a call from Steve Fore, the training manager at the Seattle Center after class. He gave us our assignments. I got C area. This area watches over parts of Montana, Idaho and Eastern Washington. Jon got the A area. It mostly watches over Western Washington. It's a tough area. The airspace is pretty complex.
Out of our class of 18, 17 passed the first time. The one who didn't pass the first time gets to run it again today. I know that he'll pass. He's a good guy that's really smart. His nerves just got to him. We are all pulling for him.
Thank you everyone for your support and well wishes. We couldn't have done it without your support.
We still have two weeks from today til we leave to come home to Seattle. I know I can't wait.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Night Before
Seven hours left until the big PV. Actually, five plus hours before Jon's PV. I kind of wish I was in the first group at 8am. Instead, I have to sit there and watch other people going down to the radar room. I think I'm going to take my ipod and read a book. Try to take my mind off of it stuff.
Last night, I ordered pizza and chilled all evening. I went to bed about 9. Fell asleep around 915ish. Around 1145pm, I woke up in a cold sweat. For some reason, I had crazy dreams. My room was crazy hot. I got up and got some water. I looked at the alarm clock and realized that I didn't turn on any of my 3 alarms. So, good thing I ended up waking up for that. I decided to turn the t.v. at 1am. I watched a bit of "For the Love of the Game". A great movie. But I was good and shut it off.
However, I didn't fall back asleep til after 2 am. I just couldn't stop thinking for anything. My mind was moving 173.4 mph. I was thinking about everything. Not just the upcoming "test" that I had. I woke up again at about 345, but was able to fall right back asleep.
I was woken up by my alarm at 5 am. I hopped in the shower right away. I shaved, ate a piece of cold pizza from last night. I'm now sitting here watching MTV's 'Made'. These kids are crazy. Haha... I don't know. Okay. It's exactly 6am. I'm going to put the shirt and tie on and go to work.
Thank you to everyone who has wished us good luck and stuff. We appreciate it and will do our best. Will let you know tonight what happens.
Jeff
Last night, I ordered pizza and chilled all evening. I went to bed about 9. Fell asleep around 915ish. Around 1145pm, I woke up in a cold sweat. For some reason, I had crazy dreams. My room was crazy hot. I got up and got some water. I looked at the alarm clock and realized that I didn't turn on any of my 3 alarms. So, good thing I ended up waking up for that. I decided to turn the t.v. at 1am. I watched a bit of "For the Love of the Game". A great movie. But I was good and shut it off.
However, I didn't fall back asleep til after 2 am. I just couldn't stop thinking for anything. My mind was moving 173.4 mph. I was thinking about everything. Not just the upcoming "test" that I had. I woke up again at about 345, but was able to fall right back asleep.
I was woken up by my alarm at 5 am. I hopped in the shower right away. I shaved, ate a piece of cold pizza from last night. I'm now sitting here watching MTV's 'Made'. These kids are crazy. Haha... I don't know. Okay. It's exactly 6am. I'm going to put the shirt and tie on and go to work.
Thank you to everyone who has wished us good luck and stuff. We appreciate it and will do our best. Will let you know tonight what happens.
Jeff
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tomorrow-The Big Day
I just had a long thing written and it all got erased... Okay, here's the summary.
Tomorrow's the big test. This is what we came down here for. A guy is going to sit behind us and tell us wether we get to go to the facility or not. I've had a few dreams about this lately. However, in my dream, the guy has been yelling about me for putting a few airplanes through the restricted area. Hopefully, this will remain a dream and not deja vu.
I went home for MLK weekend. It was the weekend after both of the sister's birthdays. I only told my dad so they were pretty surprised to see me. It was pretty cool. I told one friend also. He was able to get a bunch of friends out to go karaoking that night. It was fun. I sat next to one of the only female referees in the NBA on the way to Seattle. We talked the whole way from OKC to Dallas.
The next weekend, my sis, Chelsea, and my cousin, Alyssa, came down for a visit. Of course, Alyssa, is also Jon's wife. Alyssa's bad didn't make the initial trip, but did come down on Saturday. Chelsea and I went to the mall on Saturday and then to another one on Sunday. The second one was called the Sooner Mall. It was in Norman, home of Oklahoma University. We counted 80+ people wearing OU appearal. They sure love their sooners down here.
To get home though, the girls had to wait a few days. An ice storm came and cancelled their flights for two days. They had to leave at 330 on Wednesday morning in order to get to their flight out of here. Unfortunatly, their flight was delayed an hour and they missed their connecting flight in Atlanta. Somehow, they caught a flight to Minnesota and then another one back to Seattle. Sounds like fun.
We missed a few days of school too. But, we have been busting our butts making up for the problems that we missed. Speaking of... Time to go practice for the last time before we test. Think good thoughts for us if you read this before we test...
Much love.
Jeff
Tomorrow's the big test. This is what we came down here for. A guy is going to sit behind us and tell us wether we get to go to the facility or not. I've had a few dreams about this lately. However, in my dream, the guy has been yelling about me for putting a few airplanes through the restricted area. Hopefully, this will remain a dream and not deja vu.
I went home for MLK weekend. It was the weekend after both of the sister's birthdays. I only told my dad so they were pretty surprised to see me. It was pretty cool. I told one friend also. He was able to get a bunch of friends out to go karaoking that night. It was fun. I sat next to one of the only female referees in the NBA on the way to Seattle. We talked the whole way from OKC to Dallas.
The next weekend, my sis, Chelsea, and my cousin, Alyssa, came down for a visit. Of course, Alyssa, is also Jon's wife. Alyssa's bad didn't make the initial trip, but did come down on Saturday. Chelsea and I went to the mall on Saturday and then to another one on Sunday. The second one was called the Sooner Mall. It was in Norman, home of Oklahoma University. We counted 80+ people wearing OU appearal. They sure love their sooners down here.
To get home though, the girls had to wait a few days. An ice storm came and cancelled their flights for two days. They had to leave at 330 on Wednesday morning in order to get to their flight out of here. Unfortunatly, their flight was delayed an hour and they missed their connecting flight in Atlanta. Somehow, they caught a flight to Minnesota and then another one back to Seattle. Sounds like fun.
We missed a few days of school too. But, we have been busting our butts making up for the problems that we missed. Speaking of... Time to go practice for the last time before we test. Think good thoughts for us if you read this before we test...
Much love.
Jeff
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas!
Is it really Christmas? It sure doesn't seem like it. 60 degrees outside without a cloud. There is nothing out there that reminds us of what we are used to. The hills with tons of Christmas lights, green trees and family and friends.
We spent the afternoon, early evening hours with the Edelhauser's. Kurt is another controller that is going to the Seattle Center with us. We had a great time. We were very happy to have a great time with a quality family. A few fun games of Scrabble were had. We won't talk about who won both(me) games. We had to cut the third game a bit short as someone's wife, and someone's cousin came to town. Alyssa came to town bearing gifts. Oh, and I love almond roca. So good.
We have been doing alright in class. We just finished a really hard 2 weeks. This is why I haven't been blogging. The past two weeks were pretty demoralizing to some extent. We were doing non-radar stuff. Basically, it's kind of the way they used to do it before radar stuff. Still, some places use this form of controlling. Example, parts of the Rockies are areas that radars just can't reach. People controlling those areas have to use strips to simulate where planes should be. I don't think that I'd like to do that forever, however it was a very interesting and complicated thing to learn. One guy in our class is going to be in the non-radar sector at the Denver Center. Let's just say that he hears about it everyday from someone in our class how bad it sucks.
Monday, we passed our second of three pass/fail tests. Our next and final one is going to be the toughest. In the next month and a half, we will be learning stuff that will lead to our final "PV", performance verification. Essentially, a person from the region comes down here and watches us and decides if we get to continue to the facility. A bit intense? I think so. It's about that time to put it into overdrive and crack skulls. On average, 95% of people do pass the final pv. One class last week had a guy not pass the pv and the retake of the pv. Guess what facility he was going to? Seattle. The other class that pv'd last week had 3 failures. I'm determined to not let it happen to me. I spent the whole day today not doing much. The next three days, I'm going to spend doing atleast 4 hours of studying. Nobody else in the class is going to do that. Why? Every single person in the class, with the exception of the 4 Seattle trainees, went home for Christmas.
Alright, I think I'm going to bed soon. Thanks again for reading. I love you all. I'm finding out more and more that people are actually reading this. Nobody ever comments, so I don't know what to say. I'm glad that I know who some of the people are so that I can censor accordingly. I don't want to offend anyone with my language. I think I have done pretty respectably so far.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Jeff
We spent the afternoon, early evening hours with the Edelhauser's. Kurt is another controller that is going to the Seattle Center with us. We had a great time. We were very happy to have a great time with a quality family. A few fun games of Scrabble were had. We won't talk about who won both
We have been doing alright in class. We just finished a really hard 2 weeks. This is why I haven't been blogging. The past two weeks were pretty demoralizing to some extent. We were doing non-radar stuff. Basically, it's kind of the way they used to do it before radar stuff. Still, some places use this form of controlling. Example, parts of the Rockies are areas that radars just can't reach. People controlling those areas have to use strips to simulate where planes should be. I don't think that I'd like to do that forever, however it was a very interesting and complicated thing to learn. One guy in our class is going to be in the non-radar sector at the Denver Center. Let's just say that he hears about it everyday from someone in our class how bad it sucks.
Monday, we passed our second of three pass/fail tests. Our next and final one is going to be the toughest. In the next month and a half, we will be learning stuff that will lead to our final "PV", performance verification. Essentially, a person from the region comes down here and watches us and decides if we get to continue to the facility. A bit intense? I think so. It's about that time to put it into overdrive and crack skulls. On average, 95% of people do pass the final pv. One class last week had a guy not pass the pv and the retake of the pv. Guess what facility he was going to? Seattle. The other class that pv'd last week had 3 failures. I'm determined to not let it happen to me. I spent the whole day today not doing much. The next three days, I'm going to spend doing atleast 4 hours of studying. Nobody else in the class is going to do that. Why? Every single person in the class, with the exception of the 4 Seattle trainees, went home for Christmas.
Alright, I think I'm going to bed soon. Thanks again for reading. I love you all. I'm finding out more and more that people are actually reading this. Nobody ever comments, so I don't know what to say. I'm glad that I know who some of the people are so that I can censor accordingly. I don't want to offend anyone with my language. I think I have done pretty respectably so far.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Jeff
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Yet another update.
Okay, things have been pretty nuts. I'm struggling with things pretty bad. I mean, things make sense, I just can't apply them quite as fast as I'd like to. We are running control problems using on strips. You get about 15 minutes to preplan everything that you can and then the clock starts running. There are a few people that are just rockin', then there is me. Hahaha. It seems like you have to rember 3500 things. Sometimes I get confused and rattled. Then, I get all flustered and stuff. Then it just snowballs. I guess there have been worse, I just don't believe it.
Today we finally talked to someone from the facility. He wasn't really a manager that could answer too many questions but he did his best. We also found out that it looks like we are going to get the day off after Christmas. I suppose that's a good thing. However, I can't really afford to get home. Since we decided to get off the central credit card thing for our apartment, I have been kind of behind on the money situation. We will get paid the same since it will be considered a holiday, so that's good. I just want to be in training if I'm already going to be down here. Who knows? Maybe a 4 day weekend will be a good release.
Well, I don't know if anybody really reads this. Thanks if you have or are just reading for the first time. I'm going to try and keep posting regularly. Just be patient with me. Gracias...
Today we finally talked to someone from the facility. He wasn't really a manager that could answer too many questions but he did his best. We also found out that it looks like we are going to get the day off after Christmas. I suppose that's a good thing. However, I can't really afford to get home. Since we decided to get off the central credit card thing for our apartment, I have been kind of behind on the money situation. We will get paid the same since it will be considered a holiday, so that's good. I just want to be in training if I'm already going to be down here. Who knows? Maybe a 4 day weekend will be a good release.
Well, I don't know if anybody really reads this. Thanks if you have or are just reading for the first time. I'm going to try and keep posting regularly. Just be patient with me. Gracias...
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
*Short Update*
Okay, I have been trying to stay focused on the task at hand. Therefore, I have neglected my writings. After several people asking me why I haven't been writing much, I decided to give my appologies. I struggled pretty good last section so, I have been trying to do better this time.
We have a map test tomorrow, so I shouldn't be writing too much... I need to draw it one more time tonight and again tomorrow before school. Then, they are giving us an hour to study the map in class yet again. Before lunch we will draw the map out. I did alright on the pretest. Probably a 93% or so. But I want as close to 100% as I can get.
So, this is all I'm writing for now. I'll give a detailed update either tomorrow or Thursday (since Mrs. Hasselback never emailed me about the Hawks tickets in Dallas). Anyways, good night everyone!
We have a map test tomorrow, so I shouldn't be writing too much... I need to draw it one more time tonight and again tomorrow before school. Then, they are giving us an hour to study the map in class yet again. Before lunch we will draw the map out. I did alright on the pretest. Probably a 93% or so. But I want as close to 100% as I can get.
So, this is all I'm writing for now. I'll give a detailed update either tomorrow or Thursday (since Mrs. Hasselback never emailed me about the Hawks tickets in Dallas). Anyways, good night everyone!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Back to it.
After having my computer for more than a week, the guy said he couldn't know what to do. He thought it was my motherboard. So, we went to Best Buy and the guy used a new plug to test it... Yeah, it worked right away. The guy told me he checked it but he's a tool. I'm never going there again, infact, I feel like writing bad stuff about him on the net.
It's our day off because of Veteran's Day. It's been pretty preductive. Alyssa and Sarah are coming down this Friday. Tim is bringing my car down this next weekend. I'm feeling a bit better about the way things are going for now. This last test wasn't as bad. I don't know. We'll see what happens.
I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you again for reading. I'd love to hear how other people are doing...
Jeff
It's our day off because of Veteran's Day. It's been pretty preductive. Alyssa and Sarah are coming down this Friday. Tim is bringing my car down this next weekend. I'm feeling a bit better about the way things are going for now. This last test wasn't as bad. I don't know. We'll see what happens.
I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you again for reading. I'd love to hear how other people are doing...
Jeff
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