For a great look at life in the navy, check out the excellent PBS documentary series, “Carrier”, available for free on HULU. It looked like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun to be part of something like that.
Nothing really is though, is it? Something tells me that fuck ups are going to fuck up no matter what they do. It’s the scale of fuck-uppery you want to mitigate.
Send the kid to truck driving school, instead.
I’ve only known about five people who were in the military. One was killed and one wounded. Bad odds. And one got his college degree by signing up for the Air force and being stationed in Alaska, but he said he was too young to realize he could have gotten to the same point sooner without a long enlistment.
So, **astro **- fall term’s about to start. Have you decided what to do? Talked with the ex yet? What does your son say? Despite all the “slacker” talk, I think we’re all rooting for him and hoping for the best.
I going to let him take his shot at one last semester and he knows this is the last go round. As a side note I had to take his notebook away last week because it gotten one absolute world beater of virus that it took me many, many hours to slap down, and finally I just reformatted because I had messed around with the registry so much by the time I was finished killing the virus the OS was probably unstable. By the time I got the notebook back to him a week later he wanted to build a deck and large airplane observation platform (his mom’s house backs up to an airport) in his mothers back yard with landscape timbers and bolts, and had already been shopping for the the materials, and designed the layout.
I kept the Diablo disc that was in the machine, but he could easily get another. It’s amazing how much better he seems when he’s away from the temptations of gaming.
What struck me about that documentary is how I wouldn’t trust the peopl in that documentary with a potato gun, let alone a multi-million dollar combat system.
Been there, done that - USS Enterprise (CVN-65) 1983-6. I enjoyed the series and it brought back memories.
My take on the series was that it was a 10 episodes about people on a carrier, not about carrier operations.
I don’t fault the series for not being able to paint a complete picture, I’m not sure how you would or could tell the story of a floating nuclear-powered airport that’s in operation 24 hours a day with 5500 people onboard. I understand that the series focused on interesting/charasmatic individuals and activities in the 10 hours shown; it’s dull to stand a bridgewatch at 0400 (usually) or paint a bulkhead or process a supply requisition or pump water to ballast the ship.
People aren’t given the responsibility for a multi-million combat system until they have completed the training and qualifications and testing to show they can perform the duties. You didn’t (and won’t) see the Mess Specialist/cook flying a jet, nor would you see a FA/18 pilot diagnosing an illness; they work in their area of training and specialization at the level of their qualification.
As an example, the helmsman steers the ship. A new person isn’t just told to do it, they do it UI (Under Instruction) of a senior qualified helmsman until they have accumulated the necessary time at it and pass a test and become qualified. If the ship goes to General Quarters/Battle Conditions, the best-qualified helmsman will be at the wheel. It’s like any job, a neurosurgeon doesn’t work on your car, nor does an insurance salesman insert your pacemaker. If a person hasn’t demonstrated their ability to perform the job, they aren’t put in the position.
There is a tremendous amount of training and drilling of the skills involved prior to a deployment and it continues during the deployment. From what I recall of the series, there were no serious incidents (fire, flooding, collision, flight deck crash) nor the drills for those incidents. Had there been, I think it would have shown that the right people were in the right place at the right time, doing the right things.
The 99% of the people I served with earned my respect by showing their competence and that I could trust them.
I am sorry your son has turned out that way. I think before sending him out to get a job or to join the military, the gaming addiction must be addressed. I was listening to Dr. Dean Edell and he read an article on air about this - gamers tend to be young, male, obese, unsociable, in poor health, isolated - basically they are happy to sit in their parents basements the rest of their lives as long as they have lots of junk food and can play WoW 18 hours a day. It’s a real addiction and you can’t just take the computer away and expect them to just run out and find other ways to fill the time - like working.
As someone else suggested, give him an account on the computer that doesn’t have administrator privileges, and then make sure that access is set up in such a way that only administrators can install new software.
I call bullshit. This is **nothing **like the vast majority of the gamers I know, myself included (26, female, not anywhere near overweight, sociable, in good health, with a well paying job and my own apartment). There **are **gamers like those you describe–but they are **not **a majority. Did this Dr. Edell have **any **data to support his assertion that most gamers are like this?
I’m inclined to share your outrage, but I wonder if this Dr. Edell meant gaming addicts, not gamers at large. I may be outraged anyway, though.
And yes, Astro, I’m also going to suggest the Coast Guard. Closer to home, safer, shouldn’t offend your political sensibilities, and definitely doing good work that needs to be done.
I have no problem with the miltary politically, my father was a very decorated non-com officer (major) in WWII and the US military is vital part of our national security, it’s the dead kid part that I’m trying to avoid.
ROTC. 2ndt Lieutentants in the regular Army are rumored to get near 60K to start.
Another interesting view of the Navy carrier experience is worth the 60 minute listen on NPR’s This American Life. It hits the enlisted, officer and NCO experience, in that order.
My opinion, there’s a lot of great opportunities in the military (my background is mostly AF). Two relatively new ones are tuition assistance and the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which is a significant improvement over the Montgomery GI Bill. However, this can’t be a decision that somebody else makes for your kid, just him. That way, it’s his accomplishment or mistake, depending on how it goes. Unlike high school, Boy Scouts, and (to a lesser extent) college, the military isn’t generally something that a kid can succeed at based on the efforts of his or her parents.
Good luck!
Cal
health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/videogamersolderthanyouthink.html
Dr. Dean Edell has a syndicated radio talk show, takes medical questions from callers, and in between discusses medical issues and reads articles of interest. The article above is what he read on the air last week. Yes, yes, I know the OP’s son is too young to fit the description, but it sounds like he could be heading there.
1.) I’d be interested to see what criteria they used to select their participants.
2.) The distinction between gamers and non-gamers relied on self-identification (which could be useful in certain ways, but isn’t going to tell you everything about the actual gaming community).
3.) Greater reliance on the internet for social support: so what? You have to have physically met someone for them to be a good friend? And why is this being interpreted as a “willingness of adult video-game enthusiasts to sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games”? I spend a lot of time on WoW because (a) it’s a great way for me to spend time doing something with friends who live far away and (b) all of my friends who still live close to me are grad students, have crazy work schedules, or both, so we just plain can’t get together that often.
Have you tried encouraging this? Maybe he would enjoy working on landscaping or construction.
Well, the saying goes, at least in the sub community that “it’s not gay, if you’re underway”.
(not seriously; a friend is a LT in the sub community and that was a joking statement he made once)
OTOH, I’ve heard some stories that put porno movies to shame about Subic Bay and Bangkok in the '70s, so I suppose there’s some truth to the “what happens at sea stays at sea” tale.
That study’s bullshit. It’s based off the responses to a web survey conducted by e-Rewards Marketing Research in 2006 in the Seattle area. Of the 562 people who responded, only 249 of them self-identified as gamers. There was no attempt to establish how many hours each ‘gamer’ played or to verify their claims of depression or weight beyond their answers to the web survey. And that’s not even addressing the correlations - causation problems. (Hell, maybe Seattlites just skew fat and depressed. Who knows.)
In short: it’s not a study, it’s an internet poll. Read more about it at Ars Tech
As far as game design careers - it’s pretty much the sweatshop of programming jobs. But the programming/art skills involved are useful in other computer careers too. If I wasn’t in the middle of a different degree I’d think seriously about applying to Full Sail (my dream job is Industrial Light & Magic).
As far as the military goes - if he’s never expressed any interest, now’s a lousy time to start.
As far as gaming goes - listening to non-gamers go all “Reefer Madness” about it is always a good time.
Per GoArmy.com, base pay for an O-1 is about half of that,
$31,863. An individual may be eligible for bonuses, allowances and other pays (flight pay, sea pay).