Stuff and Paintball

Im going to start by mentioning how the Thayer Dinner last week was. So, Ross Perot was the awardee and the main speaker of the night. I found Perot's speech very entertaining and very interesting. He gave many stories of his friends who have served in the military. The man seems to be a very humble, determined, and kind individual. Throughout his speech he was making funny jokes about some of the things was talking about. He also began and ended his speech by holding up the Forbes Magazine with the "West Point Top College" article. That night and the next day I heard many people saying that the speech was boring, dragged on, was too long, or was trivial. I was very suprised by this as I figured most would have respected the meanings behind the stories he told. I also don't think his speech was anywhere near too long.

Friday was the same as any Friday I have here. I got out of classes, took a nap, ordered pizza, played xbox with some of my buddies down in the dayroom, and then went to bed. I went to bed a little earlier though as I had to be at CGR (Central Guard Room) by 0430 hrs. The reason why: District 9 Paintball Game in Connecticut. The drive was about 3 to 3.5 hours long. I was the TC (traffic controller) for Cpl. Hunter and so we were awake while everyone was sleeping. The trip consisted of meandering conversations and constanly scanning for rap on the radio. After getting to the field and getting set up, we started play at about 9 AM. Except for the 1 hour break for lunch, we played from 9 till 4:30. The game went very well and we had control of nearly the whole field the entire time. For the final battle (last 30 minutes) our team was forced to assault a cliff. It was literally impossible. With 5 minutes left I wrecked my right knee pretty good on a rock. Its really sore and I probably won't be able to wrestle this week. We ended up winning the game 1900-900. On the way home we ordered 100 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds. That was enough for each person to have 3, very healthy. After everyone finished eating in the car they passed out again. Hunter and I again were engaged in random conversation and "singing" to rap and some bad music that we found on the radio.

You might wonder why I was playing paintball as a cadet at West Point. The reason being is it is one club out of many (somewhere around 100?) here at West Point. It is amazing all of the activities and opportunities cadets are offered here. There is a club for nearly every interest, there are many different exchange trips, there are educational trips, and a bunch of other random things. West Point does a good job of giving everyone opportunities to learn, have fun, and best of all, get off post.

As a brief note to end this post, Cpl. Hunter and I are making a rap group called Notorious B.A.G. (Barracks Arrangement Guide). We are going to make satirical raps and videos about West Point. West Point is really big on spirit stuff and its just something we can entertain ourselves with. It can be hard at times to find entertainment outside of watching movies in your room.