Done!

So despite having to start our group project from scratch and redoing it in 10 days, and the 3rd (yet highly useless) guy in the group dropping out just under 28 hours before the final presentation - fire instructor ii is finished.

the exam has to be the worst written exam in the history of my history. the exam focused on two areas that were not covered in the class - in fact, one was budgeting (an instructor iii level topic) and the other was on a chart in the corner of one of the pages. the class marks were from 76-82% (50 question exam). I got my lowest score ever at 76. but, of the 17 ppl who started the journey, i was among the 5 who passed.

ugh.

My left foot.

All my friends are correct - i am indeed the most accident prone person on this damned planet.

while walking (yes walking) down the stairs from the bunk room at the fire station to the engine bay (still walking, not rushing to a call or anything like that), I managed to twist my left foot clockwise such that my left ankle landed on the ground.

Went to the doctor, filled out yet another "brown form" (workman's comp form), had xrays and apparently i tore some tendons or ligaments (i don't remember which - and it hurts too much to go to my car to get the doctor's report) in my left foot. I'm on light duty until i get released by the specialist (appointment later this week).

So yeah, apparently i can't walk down a flight of stairs without hurting myself.

good thing i wasn't chewing gum.

Injury update

Alrighty... so my most recent visit to my evil satanic^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hevil dentist happened on thursday. Apparently my liver is very effective and kept processing the novocaine while the basta^H^H^H^H^Hdentist was preparing my tooth for the veneer. This was hopefully my penultimate visit. I *really* did not like this visit. in addition to the cutting the bottom half of my tooth off entirely, cutting away some of the gum around it and removing front and back enamel - i could actually feel most of what he was doing. he claimed i couldn't. but apparently my casting aspersions on the sexual preferences of his ancestors and himself, the very real threat of imminent physical danger and the way my body clenched and contracted as he did his stuff - he (the evil bastard dentist) decided to give me more novocaine.

So now i look like someone from west virginia. i almost whistle/lisp when i speak (that whole missing most of a large front tooth thing) and i have to eat / drink things through a straw for a few days.

the veneer is supposed to be in sometime in the next week to two weeks. i can't wait...

saying that, i'd rather lay naked and have an army of big furry spiders crawl over me than go back.

i hate spiders.

Vrooooom!

So my upload speed sucks... but still... :)

Phew

Well we passed our presentation. We didn't do too badly - it was over all much better then we or the evaluating captains expected (that whole losing a partner thing).

Now there is the final a week from monday which we're told will be the hardest test so far in our fire careers.

The Rule of Thirds

As some/many/few of you know, I'm trying to complete my Fire Instructor II class. This particular class has been a bit of a charlie foxtrot (i think i mentioned it in my last post).

Anyway, our final presentation is tonight. Almost done. Yes we're cutting it fine, but the third guy in our group bailed on us yesterday. While his contribution has been rather... sub-standard... his timing is pretty crap.

It's not a great loss - this is someone who still doesn't understand the basic precepts that they were trying to teach us in this class. The class is more about teaching theory than fire science. Things like the 3 learning domains - cognitive, psychomotor and affective...

While it's not a loss - it's still annoying as i had to stay up and get up rather early to make sure that we covered his stuff.

The not-so fun part is he called the lead instructor and blamed my partner and i for his leaving. i think he left out all the bits about his 'working 12 hour days' 'don't have much time to put into this' and the fact that most of the stuff he did was very shoddily cut and paste from other sources.

fortunately almost all of this is documented - and we're bringing it to class tonight to ensure our reputations (and grades) aren't going to be affected.

On a side note - the class is about technical rescue awareness. it might even be interesting. heck - i think it is.

but then i am a dork.

Latest update

So here's an update in the world of chris:

Injury: still healing. Had another root canal and still have a few more dentist visits. each time i go i think it's the last one, but alas - it isn't.

Humour: after my last dental visit, the dentist put me on some meds that didn't agree with me. so i spent the weekend whimpering while in a fetal ball. Reminded me of a visit to the Death Van oh so many years ago.

Anyway, the guys from Station 19 showed up on my duty night (i was home sick) to train with us. They apparently got of the engine with all sorts of facial protection - hockey masks etc. Shame i missed it. Sort of.

Wankers. :)

Work: work is somewhat busy. discovered the project lead hasn't been forwarding any of my work, results, questions or whatnot to the boss boss. This led to some ass chewing until i produced my email documentation trail. note to everyeone - save all your emails (unless you're a congressmen for a penchant for underage pages).

Fire Stuff: my fire instructor II class is a total charlie foxtrot. the lead instructor has been giving us all conflicting information regarding just what he wants us to do project wise. of course it conflicted not only with himself, but the various captains who were to evaluate us. bleh.

I'm currently taking the next level of EMS classes. Good stuff, but very demanding on my time.

The redhat program seems to be working. amazing.

i'm having fun teaching the fire I class, but with all the other classes (ems, instructor ii, officer ii (coming up), command school and all that) - i'm having a hard time finding time.

Viv: things are going well. we're worried about her cats though cause they had some of that tainted food - and one of them was ill. they went to the vet today and we're waiting for some bloodwork to come back. they either have some minor bacterial stuff going on - or somethign more serious. this is very much a bad thing.

Fun: looking at mountain bikes - need to get outside and do fun things. i have a lot of friends who i never see enough who ride - so this might be a good escape, some good cardio and a good excuse to see some old friends. viv is also interested in biking - but wants to rent one the first few times before committing.

cats: mine are well. Baal is going to get a lion cut this summer. he's just too big and furry. i think he'll enjoy life more with less fur. Anat is her usual happy spastic self.

There's been a lot going on in my world, but nothing that i've really had time to write down, or that i thought might actually be worth documenting.

oh- finished the latest ghost recon for the 360. decent enough game. good graphics - i like the some of the new feature. AI for the team mates still needs some work, and the campaign was far too short. but it was a good play. i hope to play smith and co online sometime. maybe this weekend. looks like i will have the house entirely to myself (as well as that huge list of things to do that i've been ignoring). being an adult sucks sometimes.