[Digitalicious]

Congrats on your marriage, Chris. Not married yet, but SO of ten+ years.

I will say, it's nice having projects to work on during COVID. I used to come home after work and sit in my apartment all depressed because it never felt like I was working toward anything. Always wanted to be a homeowner.

I do think it's improved my mental health. I had zero DIY skills and for sure bit off more than I can chew, but you learn quick, and it's a great feeling when you measurably improve part of it.

I feel like I've been given this neat thing that; y'know, now I've got to take care of it, and I have to preserve it and improve it for future generations.

Should be interesting after COVID. Low interest rates, lots of people holding off on selling and buying. Might be a good market to buy in—get more for your money. Who knows?

[Randy]

Gentlemen, definitely take advantage of these low interest rates during these times if you can. Some of the lowest mortgage rates in the last ten years thanks to this virus. I was able to cut an entire percent off my mortgage and refinance my current home loan.

With that being said.. I would definitely say a lot has change since I last posted on here back in 2006. I was a thirteen year old little runt who was extremely over the top and very annoying. It's super embarrassing but funny as hell to go through all these posts I had made back then. With that being said though I did learn a lot at a very young age about coding and HTML/CSS, as well as photoshop/dreamweaver skills that gave me an edge during high school.

I fucked off a lot in high school. Never really gave a shit my first two years and pretty much shit the bed in every class I didn't have a vested interest in. The classes I did excel at were extracurriculars like PE classes, comp tech, web design, and math. Everything else I'd pretty much walk in and put my head down on the desk and take a nap lmao, until my junior year. By then I realized if I wanted a shot at anything after high school that I needed to actually apply myself. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, I just lacked the motivation. Come junior/senior year, I was an honor roll student. Even got decent enough grades to play sports for the school and played varsity tennis my senior year. Graduated in 2012.

My junior year, funny enough, to get out of classes for 4 hours, I went and took the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which is the test that military recruiters review to see what skills you are qualified for, and ended up scoring very high on it. After graduating though I pretty much knew that college was out of the question for me at the time, just because I didn't make good enough grades to rate any scholarships, and I didn't want to rack up meaningless student loan debt. I pretty much decided I wanted to join the military. I knew I wanted to work in aviation because that was the best bang for my buck, and I enjoyed working with electronics. Not being thoroughly educated on the different branches, I opted for the Air Force, because Air Force obviously has aviation right? Well I put together my package, but if you know anything about the military, it's that the Air Force is pretty much the easiest branch to join, and benefits are pretty much the same across the military, so essentially Air Force recruiters don't even have to try to meet their monthly quota. That was the case with my recruiter, which meant he was never in his office. Next door though, was the Marine Corps recruiting office, and of course they took that I couldn't get my package through to them, and brought me in to discuss my options. Ended up learning about Marine Corps aviation and unhesitatingly opted to enlist with the Marine Corps instead. I was pretty tired of my hometown and wanted to get out and start my life. I ended up leaving for boot camp in Parris Island, SC in November 2012. Became a Marine in February 2013. Went to Marine Combat Training in Jacksonville, NC, then to Pensacola, FL for Marine Avionics Training, then from there to Biloxi, MS to train to become a calibration technician. I was responsible for testing, calibrating, and reparing all aviation test measurement/diagnostic equipment that takes quantitative measurements. Once I graduated I was stationed at a base in New York from 2014 to 2018. It was a reserve base but I was the active duty compartment of it, with my primary duty being to train the reservists that come in once a month. I ended up getting married in late 2014. Rented a small one bedroom apartment in upstate NY but it was perfect for her and I. I got to do a lot of traveling while I was there. I visited Niagara Falls, AirBNB'd in Montreal for a week, got to fly in a helicopter across Rhode Island with the wife, and a lot more. Did a few detachments, mainly to Arizona to support simulated deployment opeations. I performed military funeral details as well. I saw the execution over 60 funerals across the tri-state area in New York, and was the Marine who passed the flag to the next-of-kin. Truly a humbling experience that I'll never forget.

Fast forward to today, and I am still in the Marine Corps as a Sergeant, getting promoted to Staff Sergeant soon. I am proud to be a Marine, and genuinely enjoy mentoring, training and molding Marines to be successful, influential leaders. I couldn't see myself in any other military cloth and am thankful every day that I didn't join the Air Force (no offense to any of you currently in). I plan on going the Warrant Officer route and retiring from the service around 25-30 years. I've been stationed in SC since the middle of 2018. The wife and I bought a home when we came down and couldn't be happier with the choice. No kids, but I do have one adorable golden retriever puppy (which pretty much doubles as a toddler). I am currently on a deployment in Japan, which sounds awesome but considering the coronavirus is a thing now, I haven't been able to go outside of base and truly appreciate Japan at all since I've gotten here. Hopefully things let up soon.

[Randy]

Chris, it pains me to see the effort you put in to being one of the few. I know that training is no joke. Literally the first part of BUD/S and other similar spec op schools is getting hazed in the water for over an hour. I know for a fact I could never step up to the plate and do that shit, and kudos to you for trying. I'm really stoked to see you took advantage of the GI bill and graduated, and always enjoy seeing your posts on FB about your progress. Semper Gumby.