its finally here!!!

My call finally came! West Indies Dutch speaking, and I leave on March 24th. Im getting pretty excited. Especially since I get to learn a new language AND live in a tropical paradise. checked it out on google earth and on the Internet and it looks like an awesome place to spend my two years. Most of my time will probably be spent in the country of Suriname, which is part of South America. Out of the three major countries there, mine looked the least "third-world" haha. Actually looks pretty nice. Has a burger king, and McDonald's and everything. Yeah, im pretty excited to leave. Should be an awesome experience.

Other happenings in the world:

Obama called up 30,000 more troops:

I agree with this situation personally. Not sure what else we could possibly do though. We cant just bring them all back. But now we need to make sure we dont pull a Soviet Union and just waste away 18 years. we actually stopped bringing in Tanks and other heavy vehicles simply because we didnt want to look like the USSR. Yet his plan of being out by 2011 ridiculous. There is no possible way to be out that fast. Even the Afghani president said they would need 5 years. I did like hearing that the 4th Marine division launched a major assult against the taliban. Knocked out a lot of their supply lines and everything. However, im not sure whats going to happen with this war. Pakistan needs to clean up their act and I really dont see why people think Iran will do anything. North Korea is looking like their up next. Hopefully there wont be a next though. North Korea would be a pretty bloody war. We would beat them for sure, it would take quite some time to accomplish the mission however. N Korea can launch about 300,000 shells on seoul in half an hour. I dont like those numbers personally. And kim jong il is basically crazy, and dying so im thinking he might want to go out with a bang since his country has accomplished little to anything during his reign as "leader".

Its so cold you guys. Also, im really excited to go snowcaving this winter. Going to be awesome! Gotta enjoy the snow while I still can haha.

Anyway, im done rambling and sorry for the spelling errors. This keyboard is wierd. Well im off-


Tate

In Remembrance

Well its a day late but I finally can get on my computer and say something about one of my favorite holidays. Veterans Day.

Here is a video that was really touching I thought and the poem that goes along with it:

Click here for the video: Farewell Marine

Tribute: Farewell Marine

The combat boots are empty and finally they're still, They're set carefully at attention, they've marched up their last hill. The rifle, too, is silent now and unwaveringly erected, Holding up the well-worn helmet of the Marine it once protected. One by one his comrades somberly draw near, Each raising one last salute unashamed to shed a tear; A time-honored tribute, dating back to days of old, As a reverent memorial a stirring image to behold. It bears witness to the bond of a brotherhood of men, The kind who only come along every now and then. These men who pass will carry on, they've a mission to complete, For our Country they will fiercely fight, our enemies they'll defeat.

But in his heart after this, no Marine will be the same, A hero is now known to him, and bears his buddy's name. Wherever duty takes him, whatever battles he may fight, Never will he forget the friend who gave his life for what is right. Finally, the bugle sounds Taps is softly played, Time to say farewell, and say a prayer for the sacrifices made. This day the names of those who died will be added to the List, They will forever be remembered, and will undeniably be missed. Next time you see a proud Marine in that uniform he wears, Know his heart is strong and true please keep him in your prayers. He lives by a vow to protect and defend no matter what the cost, But to every Marine, it carries a name... his buddy who was lost.

and their off!

Well its finally happened. The mission papers are off. Well they still need to be reviewed by my bishop but I have officially sent them in and the process is finally underway. So very soon I will have a nice little letter and ill find out where im going. So far it looks like Poland is winning and the East coast is winning for in state. Itll be interesting to see where I end up serving. Im pretty excited. Here are a few pictures of me sending it off:

Its a terrible picture haha but it shows the accept button:



Waiting to push the button..

And.. SENT!!!!!


And the celebration!
And there we have it. Its taken me quite some time but they are finally in and im excited to go serve.

As for everything else that is going on not a whole lot has happened. School is taking up most of my life. ROTC had a really fun and COLD lab that we did at Hyrum Dam. We brought up zodiac boats and had a field exercise out in the water. The water was very warm, at least 90 degrees. Almost a hot tub really. Nah it was freezing. We had to race another squad around an area in the lake, capsize the boats, recapsize them and continue on with the race. First one back wins. It was a lot of fun actually.

Thats me with my back to the camera on the front of the boat.

And me with my butt to the camera. ya.. sexyover she goes..
and I had a great video of us doing this but I cant figure out how to upload it from facebook. anyway, that about sums up what I did for ROTC last week. This week I dont know what were doing but its going to be even more cold. It snowed. Ah.. cant stand winter. Oh well.

Well on the 14th of October marked the anniversary of one of my hero's deaths. Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. He was a commander during WWII on the Germans side, however he was one of the few generals who completely opposed the Nazi party. He would always ignore the orders to kill Jewish citizens and commanded the Africa campaign which had no war crimes associated with it. He was part of the plot to kill Hitler and was discovered so he was given a choice; either die by firing squad for treason and have his family arrested or suicide and be buried with full honors and save his family. He chose to save his family. I thought it was pretty courageous to stand up to Hitler and his Nazi party and attempt to fix things. Unfortunately it didn't work out as planned. Anyway, he was an amazing general and knew his stuff pretty well. Speaking of German if anyone happens to take German1010 at USU its getting really hard haha. Nothing like high school German.

Well I cant think of what else to talk about at the moment.

Oh does anyone know how to get the "followers" thing going on the site of my blog? I cant figure out how to do that. So if anyone could tell me that would be awesome!

And since im going crazy on the pictures here is a picture that will freak you out and hopefully put a smile on your face cause it sure did to me. The longer you look at it the more you laugh haha. At least for me.



Im off.

and so winter beings..

Well its finally happened. Winter has come, far to early as usual. Cant stand the winter but oh well. Im surprised the tress are still around and havnt exploded from confusion. "Ah.. its snowing but all of my leaves are still on! This isnt suppose to happen!"

So not a whole ton has happened to me lately but id thought I would update the blog and see if I cant get myself on a better schedual haha. Schools going along alright. The early morning PT stuff is getting kind of tough. We took the PT test on wednesday which consists of 2 min max pushups and situps and a 2 mile run. I swear the guy counting for me counted 4 laps wrong and made me run 4 more then I needed which sucked but thats life. At least ill have a much better time next time around haha.

Far as the mission papers go they are all done and I didnt know my bishop was going to take off for a week and im just waiting for him to get back then I can meet with him and get them sent off! So far I have one vote for Poland (by my friend Dan) and the usual vote for Boise or something haha. I got a letter from Josh a few days ago. It was nice to hear from him. I need to write him another one soon.

Well im going to go back and finish up my paper thats due in the morning and the other projects due so ill try and get some nice pictures up soon and hopefully get on a better schedual of this thing haha

Gut Nacht-

Tate

M16's and M11's.

Well im doing pretty bad on keeping this thing updated but I finally have some time and thought I would say a few things. So here we go..

A few things have happened in the past few weeks since the last post. School has started and with it came homework and early mornings. Very early mornings. 6 am to be exact. I decided to do the ROTC for a semeaster before I leave on my mission. Get me in some excellent shape and its really good training for the Marines. We do something usually every day and have a class mondays and wednesday which teaches some way cool stuff. Plus labs on thursday. The first one was a social with pizza and the second was teaching drill. Which was much nicer this time around as the first time I learned it, I learned it with a nasty Marine Drill Instuctor. The third lab that we did today was firing the M16A2 service rifle and the M11 9mm pistol. We went out to the hunter saftey center for a few hours and had a ton of fun. I did alright. Always could do better. Im much better with the M16 then the pistol. It needs some work haha. Then we learned how to take them apart, clean them and put them back together. We had a compitition to see who could do it the fastest. The fastest was 20 seconds for disassemble. Mine was 1 minute haha. But considering it was the first time ive ever been timed for that I thought I did pretty good.

Heres some pics of the afternoon:

Thats me with my back to the camera haha And im the second desk up right side of the left side tables. Learning how to disassemble the M16

And im the first one shooting on this side in the uniform.

Ill add some more pictures as soon as their done unloading from my camera.

Motocross, Michigan, Secondhand Serenade, and more

So after a couple people reminded me that I have a blog I decided I had better keep it updated every once and awhile haha. Currently im sitting in the Preston Idaho rodeo arena running sound for a Motocross show. Pretty interesting so far. I had to wake up at 5:30 am to get here only to show up and find they didnt want me till noon. So everything is finally up and running and now I just sit back and relax until the night is over. Then straight to the fair to pick everything up from there.

Here some picture's of them practicing.















In the past few week I took the long journey to Grand Ledge, Michigan. Right out of Lansing and right next to where Josh is serving his mission. I sold my sound and lighting company to a company located out there and believe it or not, its cheaper to drive it out in a big Penske truck then it is to have it shipped. So we rented a giant 26ft truck and started out on our journey. Along the way we saw many many many dead animals along the road including turtles. I learned many states are butt ugly and Nebraska only has one cool thing in it. Lincoln city. Awesome city and I really want to go back. Only thing I didnt like was the one way streets that I just happen to turn onto the WRONG way into oncoming traffic with a massive truck. Not as fun as you would think. Once we reached the wonderful state of Iowa with its massive mountains and no corn at all. (totally joking) we were greeted by a wonderful little blue car with flashing lights on top. Not only had we driving a commercial vehicle without a licence but we were missing about 11 other things including a log book, a physical (no idea why you need on of those..), special insurance, weight station papers, and a few other things. After about 1 1/2 hours of a nice chat with the police woman, she let us on our way to drive in fear of another pull over but luckily she gave us the right papers to show to any other cop if they happen to pull us over. Also every single weighstation we passed happen to be closed. How lucky can we get! On this trip I learned the biscuits with gravy is probably one of the greatest inventions every made. I had it every day. Sundays dinner at Dennys though almost made me throw up. Pretty nasty stuff and it was the first smoking restaurant I had been to in a long long time haha. We finally reached the Mississippi river and the sign to cross said"weight limit 8 tons" our truck was 23 tons. Then we saw a Uhaul truck cross and a train with about 50 cars underneath so we figured we were good.


Here was a prision right next to the Mississippi. Looked like an old castle.











Here is Joseph Smith grave in Nauvoo Illinois.


Here is the bullethole in the Carthage Jail that killed Hyrum Smith
And here is the window that Joseph fell out of.


All and all it was a way fun trip and Im really glad that I got to go on it.

This picture about sums up the trip: Secondhand Serenade Concert

I got the call about this show as I was boarding the plane home from Chicago. 6 am meet in logan to load the truck and be at Thanksgiving Point by 8:30 am. We brought the stage in around 9:00 am and finally got it all set up in little over an hour after which lights showed up followed by sound around 10:00. Then Secondhand showed up and we helped load their gear and get everything prepped for the show. Secondhand Serenade was the headliner with four other bands before them. I cant remember all of their names and I hadnt heard of them before.


Heres the crowd during the first band. Lots of people. I believe they said around 5000-6000 people at the end of the night.
Secondhand takes the stage!!

John (the bass player/keyboards for Secondhand Serenade and I. Both SLAYER fans!!!! ya!)

So all and all its been a pretty good past couple of weeks. I still need to upload all of the pictures from camping and bear lake. Thatll come probably tommorow. Now im just waiting for the motocross show to start so I can go back home haha. Till next time

The glad its not raining at the moment-
Tate

first post

Well this is my first post on here. Never really tried the whole blog thing before. I started one a few years ago and kind of forgot about it, but since ill be leaving for my mission in a bit I thought it would be a good idea to start one and have a way to tell about my experiences. So here goes and we'll see if anyone likes it haha.

So I finished my freshman year at USU and really enjoyed it. Took me a little bit to get use to the whole college deal but I finally got it down. I took some pretty interesting classes like Politics and War, and Terrorism and Counter terrorism, as well as Intelligent life in the Universe, and Philosophy in East Asia. As well as the usual classes like English and everything. After college I quit my personal business of three years. Gamma Productions. We did concerts and theater productions and designed and set up the sound and lighting system. We had a blast doing it and met quite a few famous people and performing groups. My highest claim to fame doing that is I met Steve Miller and a few bands from Poland and Germany. But now I work for (my competitor ironically) Magic Productions and off and on with a company in Jackson Hole called Capscium Productions. That keeps me fairly busy, especially with the summer season up. Three Dog Night concert and the stadium fireworks are later on this week with a 7am load in and were expected to be done around 1 am.

I do plan on serving a mission. Even though some people believe I wont go simply because I haven't put my papers in yet. Im planning on going except im going to go when I feel ready unlike a lot of guys my age who simply go and hope everything will work out. Thats not how I work, especially with something thats going to take two years of my life and solid dedication. I want my whole heart and soul in it. Most of my friends arnt going or are not even mormon so its been fairly difficult to find the courage to go. Plus I didnt want to go for a long time but ive "seen the light" I guess haha. And yes I do plan on going and I will put my papers in sometime soon. Within the next few months if anyone wants a rough date haha.


Also, no one seems to really like it ( and i can understand haha) but I do plan on serving my country in the United State's Marine Corps as an officer. Ill explain what I want to accomplish here for a bit. In the military you are either an enlisted man or an Officer. Enlisted go to boot camp, gets screamed at by drill instructors, and finally finish as either a private or PFC, private first class. Basically the bottom of the ladder as far as rank goes. Most of them are fresh out of high school and usually dont have much schooling after that. Officers, however, HAVE to be college graduates and go through a much more intense boot camp then enlisted men. Officers go to Quantico, Virgina to whats called Officer Candidate School, OCS. It a ten week or 2 6 week sessions of intensive training. In enlisted boot camp your stuck in the Marines, in officer training you dont sign a contact so your free to leave at any point. The Marines dont want someone who wont put their full heart into it because if you dont care, you'll get men killed. So the officer training is very competitive and very selective. Only the best succeeded and only the best get the jobs they want. Once you finish your 10 or 12 week session you are asked if you wish to accept your commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps or if you wish to walk away and live a normal life haha. Once you accept it you have a big ceremony and have your 2nd LT bars pinned on and are offically a Marine. Marines earn their title whereas the rest of the branches are given a uniform and are told "your in the army now". Once thats done you head to The Basic School for 6 months and are trained in every aspect of the Marines and at the end you get your MOS (military occupational speciality) and depending on what that is you go to 3 months to -1 year of more training. Then finally shipped out on deployment. What im hoping for is to be ground and either be Infantry or Light Armored Recon which basically drives Humvees and LAR's which is a mix between a tank and a humvee. Looks like this:

Light Armored Recon

<<<--------






So yeah. More to come from that. Im excited to do it when I get back from my mission and see some different parts of the world. My friend just recently got commissioned a second Lt. and is heading off to TBS in October.




2nt Lt. Paul Vandenbos.







So ya thats about it for right now. Im going to bed and ill add more later haha.