Matt's Blog

Thankful to be Alive

2010-11-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful to be alive. It could have easily been otherwise, spending two unplanned nights in the south fork of No Man’s Canyon. No Man’s Canyon is a remote slot canyon located in the Robbers Roost area near Hanksville, Utah. In an ideal world I would go canyoneering once a month, but I can only go when I can find other people to go with. It had been months since my last canyoneering trip, the last trip we hiked was Cable Canyon at the end of July, which was a fun hike. This would be my first time canyoneering without my brother John, who moved to Ohio for law school.

Four of us took the trip through No Man’s Canyon. There was Jason Matern, who I have known my entire life, he grew up in the house directly behind ours. There was Elroy Rigsby, he is a friend who I met in the Army. He recently moved to Utah from Texas. There was Chris Mosbacker, who Jason knew through geocaching. I met him one time previously and that was when we hiked Alcatraz Canyon.

Normally when I have gone canyoneering we have left early Saturday morning, around two in the morning depending on how long of a ride it took to get there. But the consensus view was that we would leave Friday and camp out down there. We left Friday, November 26th, the traditional canyoneering meal is Beto’s burritos, because their burritos are so huge that they can be used for two meals. On a Saturday morning trip one burrito would suffice, but since this was a Friday trip two burritos were purchased. That’s all I needed for food for my canyoneering trip was two burritos and my twelve granola bars. These burritos were smaller then I ever remember a Betos burrito being, I ate more than half of my first burrito on the car ride down, decided to purchase a banana in Green River. On the car ride down, we had the usual pre-canyoneering cannibalism discussion. Elroy informed the group that he resorts to cannibalism pretty quickly.

We arrived at our camping spot late Friday night, it was very windy. Despite Chris’ tent’s efforts to blow away we were able to set it up. Jason’s tent was taller and was too difficult to set up with the wind blowing so hard. Chris slept in his tent, which was making a lot of noise with assistance from the wind. Jason slept in his car. Elroy and I slept outside. I had a good nights sleep, only waking up a couple of times in the night. I was mostly warm with my sleeping bag inside a sleeping bag.

We got up Saturday morning around 6 in the morning. We discovered that the reason it was so windy was that we camped right next to a slot canyon on accident. We got into the car and drove to Angel’s Point, which was near where we planned to exit the canyon. Then we began our long hike to the beginning of the south fork of No man’s Canyon. The slot canyon took a lot longer then we thought it would. There was a lot of water in the canyon, but almost all of it could be avoided. We were able to climb over most of the water but it took time.

There were three rappels on this hike, the first two looked like it was possible to maybe climb down without rappelling but it was kind of iffy so we rappelled. On the second rappel, the rope got stuck. Jason had to climb all the way back up the rappel, to get the rope unstuck and then down climbed the rappel without rope. This took a lot of time. In hindsight it would have probably been better for us to just down climb that spot and forget the rappel altogether.

Towards the end of the slot canyon there was a pool of water that was unavoidable in which we had to swim to cross it. Jason had a dry bag in which we were able to relay our clothes across. I wore basketball shorts under my pants in anticipation of such an occasion and put my pants in the dry bag. Chris had the exhausting job of throwing the dry bag across the pool, Elroy and I filled it up with clothes and hooked it to a rope and it was pulled across. At this time Jason was investigating the trail ahead to see how much slot canyon we had left. The water was very cold. I did my traditional doggy paddle across the pool. Elroy decided to cross the pool using the same method that the dry bag did, that is by rope. He held on and we pulled him across. It was quite the site, it looked like he was on a wake board. At this point, I was wishing I brought a change of underwear. I took my basketball shorts off, changed back into my pants, but my underwear was soaked. I also kept my socks and shoes on because I didn’t want to step on any sharp things and hurt my feet.

We did have some more water to cross. I rolled up my pants to my knees, but apparently my rolling up my pants skills are lacking, as my pants unrolled and got soaked in the water. By the time we got to the final rappel it was dark. The last rappel was about 120 feet, it was the kind of rappel where it was impossible to keep your feet against the wall. So we would just get off the cliff and float down using the rope. It’s a very fun experience. By the time we were done with the rappel it was about 6 pm.

Now there was nothing to do but walk back to the car. We had five miles to walk to get to the exit crack out of the canyon. At this point I was wishing that I brought a flashlight. Jason and Chris both had lights attached to their head but Elroy and I had nothing. So I had to carefully walk so I didn’t hurt myself on the way. With .2 miles left until we reached the exit crack, I decided that it would be a good time to eat my last granola bar. When we arrived at the spot of the alleged exit crack we saw that we had to cross down into a canyon and then climb up a ginormous cliff. In the dark, we could not find a way down into the canyon. I was wishing that I brought a flashlight so I could have been of more help in finding a way down. I wanted to keep looking for the exit until we found it. Because I didn’t want to get rescued and also because I found not moving to be cold. But it was decided that we would sleep in this hole surrounded by rocks that Chris found and resume the search for the exit crack in the morning when we could see better. Our hole protected us from the wind but not the rain. It was a cold night, my socks and shoes were still wet. My pants were wet as well. I’m thinking how I should have taken my socks and shoes off and been more careful when rolling up my pants. It didn’t seem like as a big as a deal when I thought I was going to be in the car with a change of clothes that same night.

In the morning we quickly found the way down into the canyon. We climbed up to the other side. When we got to the other side, we still could not find our way out. We thought we would be able to walk to the car at this point but instead we were on an island surrounded by canyons. I wanted to try to get down into one of the canyons and across to another side to see if there was any way up. There wasn’t any way up that we could see, but I thought that there might be a way up around the corner that we couldn’t see. But by this time we figured that search and rescue was probably already looking for us. We thought that they were probably hiking through the slot right now to come and get us. When they found us we could hike out with them. So it was decided that the safest option would be to hike back to the bottom of the final rappel. Because it was a point in the canyon where we could not be missed and also the location of a geocache in which Chris had told a friend that him and Jason were going to find.

We spent hours waiting at the bottom of the rappel, Jason and Elroy were out of water. I had very little left, but I was very thirsty, trying my best to not drink the last of my water. Chris had a little water left as well. I hadn’t eaten anything that day. I sat down and pulled out my burrito wrapper. There were little pieces that were stuck to the paper. I was trying to take off those pieces and eat them, although I did accidentally eat some paper as well. It was delicious nonetheless. At this point Elroy pulls out an entire burrito. He hadn’t eaten it before because it had gotten soaking wet in disgusting canyon water. So we split the burrito in fourths. Chris also had this pineapple candy, in which I was able to eat one piece that day. So my Sunday meal was a fourth of a soggy burrito and a pineapple candy. All of us kept hearing noises. Thinking we heard a helicopter or heard people hiking through the canyon above us. But it turns out our ears were playing tricks on us. Much to our surprise and disappointment, nobody came through the canyon that day. I prayed to God that we would all get out of this situation in good shape. I promised God that when I got out of this I would live a better life and make certain changes in my life. Jason and Chris went and found the geocache. They also made an arrow out of rocks and spelled “help” with rocks for anyone to see looking down the final rappel.

We found a rock cave to sleep in. Chris, Elroy and I got in there around three in the afternoon. It was very windy so I wanted to be in there to protect myself from the wind. Jason tried to stay warm by walking around. Chris and Jason slept near the opening, while Elroy and I slept near the top, more narrow area of the rock cave. There were pointy rocks everywhere. We were trying to use each others body heat to stay warm, but it was impossible to get a good position. We were constantly adjusting from one painful position to another. I was starting to have a hard time breathing because we were in such a small space and also felt like I needed to throw up. I was exerting way too much energy just trying to sleep. So I finally decided to move down farther. There was a small space above Jason and Chris where I could sleep. It was colder because I wasn’t able to get up against anybody, but at least I kept accidentally kicking Chris in the head all night. It seemed like I didn’t sleep much at all. My feet and legs were the coldest. Occasionally, I would think that it would be a good idea to take off my wet socks and try to warm up my feet with my hands, but my feet were just colder when I did this so I put my wet socks back on. Both nights when I slept, I would put my arms and hands in my shirt to try to warm myself up. It helped a little. I had to get up at something like three in the morning to go to the bathroom. I got out of the cave into the freezing cold and went to the bathroom. I threw up my 1/4 of soggy burrito while I was out there. We spent about fourteen hours in that rock cave and I was glad to be out of there Monday morning.

It was cold at first, but warmed up as we started moving. There was paper and a pencil from the geocache, which Jason used to write a note. He wrote all our names, the date and wrote that we were out of food and water. He wrote the coordinates of where we were going. We were not as confident today that search and rescue was coming. We thought that we might be able to find another way out of the canyon if we went to the north fork of No Man’s Canyon. We got some water out of a pond, it wasn’t the cleanest water ever, but it was very clean by canyon standards. Jason and Chris had seen this water the night before, when they were talking about drinking water in the canyon, I was picturing much more disgusting water then this. I thought it would be safer to drink urine then canyon water. But when I saw the water, it looked way more delicious then urine, so I filled up my six bottles. We discussed funny things that could happen, such as if I drank some urine and the helicopter came right after I drank it. Elroy suggested that I would probably keep drinking it even after I saw the helicopter. I drank the last of my water, so that I could fill up my last bottle. That water tasted so good. I had been thirsty all night and didn’t even take a drink after I threw up. Although I took a small sip in the morning. To fill up the water I had to put my hand all the way under, the water was so cold. Jason drank some of the water, but the rest of us were not thirsty enough for that yet.

We started hiking down the canyon. It was not too long after that that we started hearing the noise of a helicopter. The others made some noise, while I tried to explain that they wouldn’t be able to hear us in the helicopter. After some time of the helicopter flying around, we saw the helicopter come around the corner in the canyon. We were at the perfect spot for a helicopter to land at the time, most of the canyon would have been much more difficult for a helicopter to land.

Chris stayed behind with two of the rescuers because there was not room enough for everyone in the helicopter. It was a short flight to Jason’s car. I saw John Matern there, I changed into different clothes, it was nice to get out of wet socks. We had to go in an ambulance to make sure we were okay. They took our blood pressure, we were all found in good health. The back of the ambulance was very warm and they had food and water. I had a banana, two donuts and some water. Delicious.

We got in Jason's car and I was trying to see if my phone had cell phone reception, I wanted to call my dad and tell him I was okay. I was imagining calling him and him not knowing that we were missing. But then I saw Dad come and look through the car window. I was happy to see him. Once we got cell phone reception, I was getting non-stop text messages from facebook updating me. Ever since I figured out how to update my facebook by text message I get texts updating me every time I get a notification. I have since turned that feature off. I was surprised by how many people knew about what was going on. I am thankful that I have so many good friends and such a loving family. I am thankful that we had so many people praying for us. I am grateful to be alive, I feel like every breath I take is a gift from God. I should not waste that gift, I need to live a better life, I need to live how God wants me to live.

2010-03-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

A discussion of the cheating and annoyingness of the old guy I play racquetball with between robot me and robot old guy that I play racquetball with.

U.S. Bank Job Interview

2010-02-27T16:02:00.000-08:00

Flashback to 2003, I interviewed for a job at U.S. Bank. This is a recreation of that interview. The interview was the same, except for the British accents.

Diversity

2010-02-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

Found this cool site that you can make movies. I think I'll start doing this for my blog. Here is my first effort, it is me talking to my Gender and Politics professor.

Conference

2009-10-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

I think it's time to update the blog. It's been three months after all and the backwards golf shop has been covering up the links for too long. I thought Conference was awesome today. I missed the morning session because I went with some other people from my stake to sing. We sang for two hours which is the longest that I have ever sang. A lady from the Deseret News asked me some questions. I was almost in the newspaper but instead Matt Millburne was in it. My comments were way better than his. Plus, I just noticed that Matt Millburne's quote made it into the headline. The article is here. I was able to go to Priesthood session yesterday. My favorite part was when this traffic cop started booing this guy who was crossing the street at the wrong time. Plus, I accidentally went on Saturday to do this singing because I thought that's when we were doing this. But nobody that I knew was there. I started waiting by the protesters because I thought I might see some people from my ward but I never saw them. So I ended up talking to these protesters for a long time. Come to find out I went on the wrong day. My favorite talk was Elder Holland's. My favorite quote in his talk was, "For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history. Perhaps like no other book in any religious history and still it stands. Failed theories about it's origins have been born, parroted and died. From Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius, none of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination, because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as it's young unlearned translator."

Backwards Shot

2009-07-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've had to do this shot a few times unfortunately nobody was filming. Can't believe he missed, what a choke artist.

Plus, I like how this video covers up all of my links.

Lasik eye surgery

2009-05-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

I got Lasik eye surgery yesterday. It's awesome. I can now see better than I could before with my contacts in and my vision is still supposed to be getting better in the coming weeks. I have to wear these awesome glasses for a month at night so I don't rub my eyes. It goes well with my mouth guard I wear at night so I don't grind my teeth. I have to wear lots of protection to keep me from hurting myself while I am asleep.

Below is a video of my surgery. It didn't hurt at all. Yes, I uploaded my first ever video to youtube. Hopefully it will be easier next time. Sorry no awesome music.

Holly Jolly Christmas

2009-01-03T16:06:00.001-08:00

Despite reports to the contrary, my Christmas was both holly and jolly. Of course it was fun spending time with the family opening my millions of presents. As usual, it’s fun to go to the cabin. I didn’t get to go last year so this was nice. John was there for a short time and he claimed the title for sled racing. Although it was extremely controversial how my opponents sabotaged my awesome victory path. Because Dad will most likely forget to mention it on his non-existent blog, I will mention that Dad can no longer claim he has not been in a car accident. But there was no harm done, except for how John was late for work. Plus, the car. Plus, sledding at the springs was way fun. Brett, Rachel, and me were doing the go down without steering way, which is the most fun way of all. Needless, to say I won, although I’m not sure how my victory was determined. My biggest choke of the trip was not bringing my camera after I covered Bubs in snow and rocks when he was on the sled while I was on the snowmobile. It was quite the sight. I got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa so that was nice. Once back in Utah I went skiing with Brett and Rachel. We did night skiing at Brighton. Yesterday, Steph and family went back to Georgia and Brett and family headed over to Alabama. It was nice seeing everybody. I wish school would hurry up and start. For some reason it doesn’t start until the 12th.

Skiing

2008-12-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

I had my friend Elroy visiting from Thursday the fourth to Tuesday the ninth. Elroy currently lives in Texas, he was in my battery when I deployed to Iraq, although at a different base. He got out of the Army a little before me. He was interested in going snowboarding. So we went to Park City Friday, Saturday and Monday. I went skiing. The first time going down the hill on Friday was quite the terrifying experience even though I was going down very slow. But this was the most skiing I've ever done in such a short period of time so my skills began to improve. Skiing is so fun, I wish I could go more. I looked at season passes at the different resorts but they all seem to be more money than I want to spend. On Monday, it was snowing which made it difficult to see considering that I wasn't wearing any ski goggles. Everybody except for me and Elroy were wearing ski goggles. It made it very difficult to see. I could see basically where I was supposed to go and where people were, but I could not see different bumps in the mountain well. This caused crashing and pain the next day. It was well worth it though, although I should probably purchase ski goggles if I plan on going skiing more this year. Which I do.

Other things I did with Elroy while he was here is take him to temple square and watched the Joseph Smith movie, took him to church, and gave him a Book of Mormon. That's three points for me.

Unemployment Rules!

2008-11-24T14:16:00.000-08:00

I am enjoying my new place. I decided to get a good TV. In my first attempt I bought a Vizio 42 inch plasma TV. It looked awesome in the store. But when I brought it home it would make a way annoying sound. I wrote Vizio to ask if this was normal. Here was the response that I got: "depending on your elevation the plasma technology will buzz are you get higher." That was all they said in the email with his name as well. I assume the are was supposed to be as, but would it kill him to capitalize at all. I decided to return the TV. I got a new Phillips LCD 42 inch TV which also happens to be awesome. I went to my new ward yesterday. It's a University Singles Ward. It's pretty nice not having anything to do. I recommend unemployment to everybody. It's awesome! I watched the first half of 24 at my dad's house yesterday, I was recording it so I felt free to leave before the second hour began. Well, it turns out that my DVD recorder didn't work. I have discovered the problem so it won't happen again, but it's really sad that I missed 24. For those who don't know, 24 is the best show ever. I know they are going to be selling yesterday's episode tomorrow in stores, so it looks like I'll be forced to buy one.

And now for something completely different. A 4 foot 9 inch woman chases an armed robber out of her store with a battle axe.

Moving to Salt Lake

2008-11-16T18:23:00.000-08:00

At church today my name just got put on the records of the ward I am in. They asked me to give a talk so I will be changing wards next week. That's my new strategy, switch wards every time that I am asked to do something. I am moving into an apartment in Salt Lake City, about fifteen minutes from the University of Utah. Actually, this move had nothing to do with being asked to give a talk. I did buy a giant king size bed from the D.I. I was looking for a twin bed but the king size bed was a good deal. Apparently, one of the reasons it was a good deal is because it is missing pieces of the bed frame. But it turns out that bed frames have no purpose, I have a mattress and a box spring. It was quite the ordeal trying to get that king size mattress up the stairs by myself. I had several unsuccessful attempts, I almost made it once, I was two steps from the top of the stairs, pulling the mattress up, it started slipping, I unsuccessfully attempted to crawl under the mattress to get below it, but it fell to the bottom of the stairs before I could stop it. Thankfully, Bubs saved the day, I called the Bubs and it was way easy to carry it up the stairs with two people. The next day I got an awesome desk from Office Depot. I pay rent in my apartment but still live with my dad. That is until some time next week.

And now for something completely different. A three year old girl almost falling off of a 150 foot cliff to her death.

The moral of the story is don't let your kids stand right by a giant cliff when there is not a good railing. That is all.

Home in Utah

2008-11-02T21:53:00.000-08:00

I officially get out of the Army tomorrow. That's right, officially I'm still in the Army. I drove home at Monday, left around 6:45 am and arrived at 12:30 am Tuesday morning. As per usual New Mexico was the worst state. Every time I drive through New Mexico there is a problem. This time this hay truck decided to catch on fire so I had to just be parked on the highway for about forty five minutes. Which seems like a very long time when you are driving from Fort Sill to Draper, Utah. It's good to be back home. I'm still not unpacked all the way yet. Meanwhilst, the University of Utah says I am not a resident of Utah. So I had to fill out ten thousand papers and show tons of documents

One cool thing about being in Utah is how I was able to watch a BYU game and a Jazz game on TV and watch a Jazz game in person already. I think that's more Jazz games already than the entire regular season last year. I am currently living in my dad's basement. I plan on moving to Salt Lake City before school starts in January. That is all.

Free at Last!

2008-10-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

I am officially done with the Army. Well, not officially, let me rephrase that. I am unofficially done with the Army. The only thing I have left to do is sign out for leave on Monday. Of course, I am still in the inactive reserves for another five years, which means that it is possible that I could get called back. That is the scare tactic that the reserve recruiter uses. According to him, he is not a recruiter, he is a counselor. For some reason the word recruiter has a negative connotation and makes people think of liars, it probably has something to do with the constant lying done by recruiters. So recruiters aren’t used for people getting out of the Army, career counselors are, even though it says recruiter on the badge, they are still not recruiters. The counselor was actually trying to persuade me that I should join the reserves so that I wouldn’t have to go to Iraq. The problem with that suggestion is that joining the reserves actually increases your chances of going to Iraq, so that is a horrible reason to join the reserves. Also, going to Iraq is not the bad part of being in the Army. The bad part is the amazing amounts of busy work that is done in the Army, aka mopping cement, raking leaves, buffing floors, standing in places for long periods of time while not being allowed to do anything but not being allowed to leave either. I don’t know if all this goes on in the reserves, but I’m pretty sure if I got called back from the inactive reserves it wouldn’t be for the purpose of mopping cement. After I talked to the counselor, which is a requirement before leaving the Army and once I finished all the stuff that I had to do, I talked to the guy who confirms that I have done everything. Lo and behold, the recruiter, or counselor, didn’t mark off that I had visited him. So I had to go talk to him again, once again trying to scare me into joining the reserves. Very annoying.

This weekend I am staying with some friends I know from church. It’s two people that I know from institute from before I deployed who are now married to each other. They have “maid’s quarters” in this upper room of the apartment they live in. They don’t have a maid so they use it for storage. But there is a bed in there and stuff and a bathroom with no toilet or shower. But I am permitted to walk into their home at any time to use their bathroom or watch TV. I pick up a good internet signal here, so that’s nice. I’m probably going to take two days to drive home, maybe I’ll stop in New Mexico for the night. But I still might drive straight through. I keep going back and forth on this. I don't regret my decision to join the Army, I still believe that it was the right thing for me to do. But it is nice to get my freedom back.

Yes on Prop. 8

2008-10-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a post today because of my lackluster performance on my last post. Not really. I was reading Christen's blog today, it was about Proposition 8 in California. Christen had a link to her friend Kelly's blog. I didn't think of donating to support Propostion 8, because I don't live in California and didn't really view it as my responsibility. Kelly persuaded me otherwise with this post. So I donated and would encourage everybody who hasn't yet to donate. You can donate at www.protectmarriage.com. Right after I donated I noticed that Brett and Rachel's blog had been recently updated. It was about the same subject, also encouraging people to donate. Everybody that has a blog should do a post encouraging people to donate. This vote looks like it's going to be close so we all have a responsibility to do what we can to make a difference.

I thought it would be funny to have a post title that is longer than the actual post. Boredom to record degrees was experienced. Plus, choke by BYU.

2008-10-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

This week was full of clearing. Getting ready to leave and turning stuff in. One more week and I'll be through.

Two More Weeks and I'll be Through

2008-10-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

This last week was my last week before I start clearing. I started clearing on Thursday. So all I have left to do in the Army is take care of all of the stuff that I need to to get out of the Army. This weekend is a four day weekend. It's hard to fill up my free time now that Elroy left. I don't have cable or internet in my room. I am currently at the Education Center in my car using their internet. I watched "American Carol" on Friday. It's funny because it's true. Also finished reading "Future Jihad" by Walid Phares. I have now read the Walid Phares post 9/11 trilogy of "Future Jihad,""The War of Ideas," and "The Confrontation." Walid Phares is by far my favorite author who writes about terrorism. My next book is "Descent Into Chaos." It's about all the shenanigans going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hopefully it'll be good. Two more weeks and I'll be through.

PT Test

2008-10-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

We had a PT test on Friday, I got 249 points. This is lower than my PT score in Iraq, but it is higher than the battery average which is around 230. I could have gotten a higher score. I always max my sit ups. Once I get to 80, I stop even though I can do more, because 80 has always been 100 points which is the most points that I can get in one event. What I didn't realize was that now that I am in a new age group my new max for sit ups is 83. Now I am mad that I stopped at 80. I usually look at the PT score chart before the test but I didn't get around to it this time. I got 50 push ups. I think I would have gotten around 65 if I had a better grader. For the push ups to count by Army regulation, you have to go down until your arms are parallel to the ground. They read this regulation off every time before the PT test. Despite this fact, there are still people that think that your chest has to go all the way down. I wish they would listen to the regulations before they did the grading. I don't think he even was looking at my arms. He didn't count some of my push ups, also going down farther means doing less push ups. The key to a good push up score is to go down only as far as you are required to and to do them as fast as you can so that you can get a lot of push ups before the tiredness sets in. As for the run, I could have done better in that as well. I got 15:10 in the two mile run. I didn't do my best because I didn't really care this time how fast I went as long as I passed, also I did not want to throw up which is my tradition for PT tests. I threw up anyway. This was because this guy yelled that the time was at 15:40 and then I got concerned that I wasn't going to pass, so I sped up at the end.

Other than that PT test this week has been filled with a whole lot of nothing. My good friend Elroy has now left the Army and went back to Texas. He's going to be in the Border Patrol and the National Guard. Now it will take more effort to fill up my free time.

GI Bill and Stuff

2008-09-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

This week I have been "ACAPing." This is the Army Career and Alumni Program. I went to all these classes on finding jobs, writing resumes, and most importantly learning about what my benefits are. The most important part of this week was learning about the GI Bill. My first semester of school I use the old GI Bill, this GI Bill will pay me about $3,038.21 more than tuition costs at the University of Utah during the first semester. I pay the tuition at the start of the semester then I get a check each month. Then the fall semester the post 9/11 GI Bill kicks in. The new GI Bill will pay the school directly for the cost of tuition. It will also pay me the same BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) that an E-5 Sergeant with dependents receives each month in Utah. That means I will get $1,101 each month. I will also get up to $1,000 per year in reimbursements for books. So with the new GI Bill I get $4,904 per semester more than tuition costs at the University of Utah. I can receive benefits from the GI Bill for 36 months. I am really looking forward to going to school, it's going to be nice to have the GI Bill so that I don't have to have a job. This will help me to better focus on school.

In other news, we are required to talk to a Reserve recruiter before we leave the Army. The recruiter I talked to had the same name as a certain client I used to work with who came to our house and ate a block of cheese. I didn't trust the recruiter once he denied being a recruiter. He was a civilian but his job was still to recruit people so I think me calling him a recruiter is accurate. I don't think that I am going to go to the Reserves. The one job that I have wished I signed up for ever since I did my training for MLRS Crewmember, has been an Intelligence Analyst. The training course for that is seventeen weeks. If there was some training for Intelligence Analyst that I could fit in a summer vacation I would strongly consider going into the Reserves. I wasn't really interested in other jobs he suggested such as Computer Technician and Human Recoureces. He tries to use the scare tactic about how I could still deploy if I don't sign up into the Reserves but if I sign up in the Reserves I at least get bonuses. This is because everybody that enlists in the Army signs an eight year contract, my first three were active duty, the remaining years I am in the IRR (Inactive Ready Reserve.) I'm not going to worry about getting called up, I don't think it will happen. If it does I'll just have to remember that God knew that that would happen when he let me know that I should join the Army.

The Week that Nothing Happened Part 10,082

2008-09-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

I have now resumed my pre-deployment strategy of carrying toilet paper with me in my PT shorts when doing physical training. It is quite annoying how the outhouses never have toilet paper. Fortunately I have not yet had to go in the woods, although I came close. In other news, for generations, or more accurately ever since I have been at Fort Sill, every weekday I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the chow hall. After dinner chow, I go to the grab and go so that I have something to eat when I miss meals. I don't go to the chow hall on Sunday and I miss one or two meals on Saturday. But now suddenly, we are no longer allowed to go to the grab and go if we eat dinner at the chow hall. At least that's what angry new dfac manager says. That's right, we got booted out of grab and go. I think I should be able to go because the government takes money out of my paycheck for food. Angry dfac manager says that grab and go is only to replace a missed dinner meal, but it should be able to replace any missed meal. I guess they need to conserve resources since they decided to buy new flat screen TV's and throw out the old perfectly good ones. At least we now have an extra TV in the dfac where we can enjoy watching the news with the sound on mute. Our strategy to enjoy our food that is rightfully ours without facing the wrath of angry dfac manager is yet to be determined.

Not much of interest has been happening at work. I can't wait for freedom. In other news, I have now been accepted to the University of Utah. It was obvious that I would get accepted but it's still nice for it to be official. That is all.

Hooray for New Leadership

2008-09-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

I should be taking "terminal leave" on October 27. That means using all of my remaining leave days then I am out of the Army. I currently have eight days. So I should be heading back to Utah on October 27. I think the best part will not be waking up so early every morning. We have PT scheduled for 6:00 am. First Sergeant wants accountability of everybody by 5:45 am. This means I need to be at PT by 5:30 am.

I do like my new section. I was my own Section Chief until Friday when my Section Chief came off of leave. He has a unique leadership style. It goes as follows:

1. Tells me to complete task A.
2. I complete task A.
3. No problems.

This is much different from the leadership style of my former leaders which went like so:

1. Tell me to complete task A.
2. I complete task A.
3. Gets angry at me for neglecting task F,G, and Y. Also for wasting time with Task A.
4. Tell me to complete task B.
5. I complete task B.
6. Gets angry that I completed task B instead of task X.
7. Lectures me about the fact that the President of the United States does not have power to remove troops from Iraq only Congress does.
8. I attempt to explain to him that the President is Commander-in-Chief.
9. He tells me that I am stupid and mocks the fact that I have a Political Science degree and that I don't even know that the President can't move troops out of the country.
10. A bunch of soldiers decide to play Monopoly.
11. I end up doing push ups for my selfish attempts of driving my opponents out of business.
12. Informs me that he wants to punch my parents in the face for raising such a spoiled child.

Different people like different types of leadership, so there is no way to really decide which type is better. For people like me who like clear, straight forward instructions then my current leadership will suffice. For those who like to receive conflicting instructions they might prefer different kinds of leadership.

Unfortunately I still have contact with a certain someone, but fortunately he is not in my section or in my chain of command. He does like to bring back memories. He told everybody how "greedy" I am. This because I refused to cheat on Correspondence Courses by providing other people with my answers. Also he declared that you cannot be religious and be in the Army because the Army always needs to come first. As if my religion interferred with my time in the Army. My religion actually helped me live the supposed "Army Values." For example, integrity, not cheating on tests. But he says it's okay to cheat if nobody catches you.

It's a shame that I didn't have my current leadership in Iraq.

Canyoneering

2008-09-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am now back at Fort Sill. I was unsuccessful in my attempts to get internet in my room. I randomly get free internet in my room but it is becoming less and less frequent. Everywhere to purchase internet has a huge fee that needs to be paid initially, which is not worth it considering I'm only going to live here two months. So I am doing just like I did before the deployment, using the internet in my car outside of the Education Center.

Went Canyoneering the last weekend that I was in Utah. Went with John, Matern, and his brother Jason. We were unsuccessful on day 1 in reaching our desired destination. We could not get the vehicle past one part in the road, because of the sand and a hill, this despite our efforts to build a little rock bridge. We went hiking down a random canyon, I managed to get lost for a while when I inexplicably thought that everybody went over the mountain instead of continuing to walk through the canyon to the parking lot. blarney left fork

Day two we hiked the left fork of Blarney and did Zero gravity. Thie hike was awesome, lots of going through water and climbing through narrow areas. Unfortunately, it is impossible to explain how awesome the hikes were. Fortunately I took pictures for once. These pictures are dedicated to Matern's waterproof bag that protected my camera.

Fun at Pineview

2008-08-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Went to Pineview Reservoir on Thursday with my old single's ward, the ward I was in before I joined the Army. Brian is in that ward now so he invited me to go. It was fun. I attempted to do some wakeboarding. By the end of the trip I could get up for about ten seconds. My favorite method of falling is the face plant. Friday was an awesome day because almost all of it was spent on the lake. Wakeboarding was attempted, also did the banana aka The Water Rocket, that is according to it's label. Did some kneeboarding. That was funner than wakeboarding because I could stay up longer. Although I didn't seem to ever have control. I crossed the wake, then almost immediately crossed back over it, this time on accident. I kept weaving for some reason.

Of course the tube was mighty fun. They had two tubes going in the back at the same time. The other guy's tube's rope got tangled or something so he was riding directly in front of me. I kept picturing him flying off his tube into my face. But they stopped the boat, fixed his rope and the tubing continued. Needless to say he fell off before me once we started again. It was tiring on the tube so I decided to take a break before my second attempt. I wanted to give it a good effort. My second attempt I went solo. This time I didn't stay on long before I had a painful crash causing pain to a sensitive area of the body, plus the water up the nose, swallowing water while doing an underwater flip was an added bonus. I decided to retire from tubing after that.

Saturday morning I missed the first boat, I was a little slow getting out of bed. Another boat was going out a few minutes later, as I was waiting I kept making repeated trips to the bathroom. Not sure why. I blame the chocolate muffin for no other reason than the fact that I ate one and can't think of why I had to keep going to the bathroom. In one of my frequent trips to the bathroom when I came out everybody that was going to go on the boat was gone. I ran to the beach, went out on the dock, only to discover that there was no room on the boat. After this tragic event I had no choice but to go back to the camp and help people clean up. Later out of pity a call from a cell phone on the boat offered to come pick me up so I could go wakeboarding. I declined the offer. I did not want them to make a special trip just for me, that would just make my efforts at wakeboarding seem all the more ridiculous. It was a fun trip though. Everybody was nice, I remember some people from the ward but there are a lot of changes as well. Delicious Smores were had. I now ache everywhere. I know the quality of this post would be increased greatly if I had pictures, but once again I was not prepared.

My Trip to Idaho

2008-08-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

It's been nice being back here in Utah with zero responsibilities. On Friday after John got off work we went up to Idaho. That is, my dad, John, Brian Leatherwood, Phil Cook and me. We left around 9:30 pm and drove up to Uncle Steve and Aunt Sharon's cabin. Bubs, Ange and family were there as well. Steve and Sharon were nice enough to use their expertise to take us rafting down the Snake River. It would be cool to have some pictures of the event but I am afraid that I dared not take my camera on the river, also I am too cheap to purchase pictures from the professionals. We went down the river twice. Needless to say much fun was had by all. Brian decided to do a flip off the jumping rock and land on his face. An odd strategy, but it was effective in causing pain. The second go around I got to be in the front, which is awesome. We also had after rafting entertainment in the form of drunk rafters attempting to get out of the river. First they miss where they are supposed to get out. Then they start trying to paddle upstream. It took them about ten minutes to figure out that somebody needed to get out and pull the raft. We just thought they were stupid, but as they were getting out we saw that they had plenty of alcohol. I'm not sure why people think that alcohol and whitewater rafting is such an awesome combination, but it seems to be very popular.

Had a good opportunity to visit with Grandma and Grandpa while I was up in Idaho. It was good to see them. They were nice enough to let us stay the night Saturday night. Sunday morning we left for Utah in time for 1:00 church. This coming weekend I am going to go to a lake to do some waterskiing with Brian's singles ward, which is my ward before I joined the Army. The next weekend I am going to be doing some hiking in Southern Utah. It's always nice being home during the summer. When I came home in January it was much more difficult to have so many fun things to do because people refused to quit their jobs and school to help me be entertained.

I'll Be Home Tomorrow

2008-08-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

When I was in Iraq I had my share of crappy AFN commercials to watch. The following gem is an exception. Behold, my favorite AFN commercial:

The version that I remember is a little different, only in that I think they redid this commercial to make it shorter by making the people talk faster. Same words though.

It's official, I am getting out of the Army November 3rd. If they granted waivers to waive the 90 day stabilization period I was planning on skipping leave to get out of the Army sooner. On Monday, it was finally announced that waivers would be granted. My plane ticket has already been purchased. I resisted the temptation to accept the waiver because it would logically be better for me to have a job for two more months, I can't start school until January anyway. Plus, when we get back from leave there is going to be section reorganization. We will all be in new sections! If this was not the case I would have definately accepted the waiver.

I had an eye appointment yesterday, my eyes got dilated so I got to wear those awesome plastic sunglasses under my glasses. Needless to say I looked very cool. I am leaving for Utah tomorrow via airplane. I will be arriving in Salt Lake City at 9:54 in the a.m. Dad, I hope you are still picking me up. Even though you probably won't read this reminder before I arrive I am confident your pocket calender will do the job.

Things I am looking forward to:

1. Seeing people.
2. Hiking in Southern Utah
3. River rafting in Idaho.

Everybody Wins!

2008-08-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

It is now officially the weekend. We get Thursday and Friday off, so that's nice. It's annoying not having a car, but I will have my car soon enough. Apparently, my car radio got stolen a few weeks ago. Bubs, I am going to be suspicious if I see my car radio in your car. I have now purchased my plane ticket and will arrive in Utah August 13th. I am going to go white water rafting in Idaho on the 16th. I don't know how long I will be on leave. I am taking 21 days of leave, so I will be on leave until September 2nd, but I can come back sooner if I so choose. I don't know if I am getting a waiver for my 90 day stabilization period, as of now I get out of the Army November 3rd.

This week we have received our stuff we shipped from Iraq and we have received the stuff we stored at Fort Sill. We also had an awards ceremony, I received the Army Achievement Medal. Which is the same award I received in Germany for mopping cement, kp, and opening a gate when cars drive by. The Army Commendation Medal was only given to soldiers who's leadership did not wish death upon them. Of course my excellent section leadership received this award. For his heroics of not making any contributions while simultaneously making life miserable for the soldiers who are actually doing something that actually helps accomplish the mission. It's always easier to get an award when you are the one deciding that you deserve it. On the bright side I don't care about awards. I was about as excited to receive my Army Achievement Medal as I was when I received a participation trophy in little league baseball after my team didn't win a single game.

I am getting some free wireless internet from my room. Right now I am at my desk. Sometimes I have to lay down on the floor by my door for the internet to work. It's still a bargain. I got a new cell phone. This is the nicest cell phone I have ever had, I've never had a camera phone, maybe I'll use it some day.

My New Blog 33 1/3

2008-08-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

I added a link to the right to my other new blog, The Independent Elephant. It will be a political blog. The name is not as clever as the name to this blog but I couln't think of anything better. Bubs says he'll write in it too. We shall see if he steps up to the plate.

My New Blog

2008-08-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

This is my new and improved blog, same old web address, new blog title. It's also new because this will be my post Iraq deployment blog, all my old posts are gone. Just so that you don't spend too much time thinking about why I named my blog "Matt's Blog," for your convenience I will here insert an explanation. When I was thinking about what to name my blog I thought that I want something that is descriptive about what the blog is. The blog is about what is going on in my life, my name is Matt, so naturally I concluded to put Matt in the title of the blog. But that only explains half of the title. The second half is named "Blog." That is because this is a blog.