My name is Gus....

Hi, my name is Gus and I'm a gamer. That's probably one of the major reasons I haven't posted anything in the last 3/4 of a year. I've played all sorts, but haven't gone hard core like a lot of people I see playing, i'm more of a casual player when I'm not at work. Well, the last 6 months that was work, yeah for government employment, I was gonna say that is what I did to keep from going crazy during the days but it's way too late for that.

Things just snow balled from my meeting with the Agent back in Janruary about my security clearance. Its my opinion that it was seen as an embarassment that they had a case that old and they did nothing with it, so eliminate the problem (me) and voila problem solved.

Let me rewind a bit, shortly before I did my interview with the Agent, I get a nice nasty gram from my human resources department telling me to check in or send in my resignation/id card. They had no record of why I was put on leave, but they were the ones sending me on enforced leave while my documentation with the Coast Guard was brought up to date. I rush throu the dental process, guy did outstanding work even thou he wasn't sure how well it'd turn out since he'd never had that small of a time window to work with.

I report back to Norfolk as soon as possible, probably rushed out a little too fast, for I forgot my medical records back in Seward. I only noticed that when I had to present them for verification that I had everything and when I didn't I was treated like I stole State secrets and to go away until I had 'em. When they finally arrived, turns out their records were more up to date then mine.

First ship I get put on was the USNS Comfort, one of the 2 hospital ships in the fleet. Usually this is a cush assignment that most people are fighting to get but it was only a temp duty since mission was a combination training for Reservists and to make sure all the equipment still worked on the ship. Talk about a culture shock compaired to working onboard ammuntion ships, things were about as close to the attitudes of the West Coast ships as you can get on the East Coast. I had prime photo position to take pictures of the Blackhawk helo's coming on approach to drop off simulated emergency medial patients. Of course, both batteries are dead for my camera and I'd forgotten the charger back in another bag stored in the back of my vehicle.

Next ship was about the lead boat in class USNS Lewis and Clark, that lasted all of 5 days. I get paid off because there's some concern about my clearance but it's almost 3 weeks later that I get told what the reason is and that i only have one week remainding of a four week period to contest things. The Navy claimed I'd lied on my appliaction, tried to conceal old debt, showed poor character and judgement, gambling issues, a whole host of things that read stranger then fiction. After appealing and going before an administrative judge, the judge actually sounded annoyed with the navy since there was no proof against my character, they couldn't read a credit report which showed the debts were paid and if anything he said that i proved that i did what I said I did or would do. Driving back from the Washington DC Naval yards from my meeting with the judge did it feel like a huge weight was lifted off my chest and couldn't help but play this version of Amazing Grace back in memory.

During this whole process, I was suppose to ship out to the USNS John Lenthal the first week in October, but I didn't get notified in time to clear medical so was told to stand by while they try to reschedule. Turns out they couldn't, but didn't tell me those orders were canceled until a month later when I get notified I would be reporting to the USNS Laramie. Day before I was to leave there was some questions about whether I could go so departure date was pushed back to the weekend before Thanksgiving. Everything looks like a go, i repot to medical only to be told I can't go because I was due a bi-annual physical back in March. All this idle time I could have gotten it done and told nothing. It's lookin like the only bad judgement I'm showing is to continue to work for a Government that seems to be doing it damned to get rid of me, which is ironic since we're getting paid a retention bonus to keep people with my rating employeed lest we take our credentials back to the commercial sector.

Inbetween all this goings on, I report to Norfolk Naval Base, only to be told to stand by for 8 hours a day for 6 months. I lug my laptop with me to keep myself enterntained lest I drive everyone around me crazy since I tend to pace when I get bored.

Now I find myself finally onboard the USNS Leroy Grumman, same class of ships as the Laramie and Lenthal and wondering if I want to just do my 4 months ship duty and hope I can get another ship fast or just stay onboard until i take leave to meet up what's looking to be a family gather in Cabo San Lucas for thanksgiving.

My friend Adam introduced me to World of Warcraft coming up on 2 years ago now, but i only played it seriously the last six I was in ship limbo. It has it's own appeal to different people, for adam it's how big and bad of a mob he can take down on his own, while for me, i like building stuff so crafting abilities appeal to me. Of course, being to make my own grenades and rocket launchers as a goblin engineer has it's appeal to my destructive side *evil grin*. I've also taken to EA's Battlefield 2142, rather funny to watch people compete with someone who's had actual training in combat operations. Usually the hard core gamers and hackers give me a challenge, even then they usually end up an intense game of sniper/counter-sniper ops. In some games I've had 3 other snipers hunting me as well as multipule artillary strikes called in on my suspected position all the while I finish with the best kill to death ratio.

Well, I've rambled on enough, I notice I'm loosing my focus as my mind wanders back into gaming mode. Hope everyone had a safe and happy holidays.