For today & tomorrow, our class was divided in two. We each have different schedule of things to do, then we switch & do what the other team did today on Wednesday. First on my docket today was blood draws! Yay! But, I find out when we get there that it was US getting blood drawn, not us getting to draw blood. Grady was not happy. One of my colleagues was FAR unhappier about it than I am & I would NEVER poke fun of someone for having a fear of needles entering your skin & stealing your precious, precious lifeblood. After that, my group had only online training modules & a couple of videos that we had to watch as a class. ONE document contained links to 21 other items that ranged from documents/powerpoints that were a few pages, to one 146 page document to other web pages that contained links to also other docs, or still OTHER web pages with multiple links to other docs. However, it seemed like a house of mirrors, b/c some of the links & items were redundant.
I spent hours looking at various presentations & documents. Some links lead back to places I had already been & a LOT had information that was already covered in a different document/slideshow/whatever. I was pretty much done with my work by about 1. We didn't leave the facility until 4:45.
The trainers put a couple of shorter presentations up on a screen. One was about Worker's Comp, had to be probably over 45 min, maybe an hour. It was a slideshow with a poorly mic'd woman narrating over it. Now, this wasn't just any woman's voice. Imagine, if you will, the most boring lecture or class you've ever attended. Imagine if you attended that 12 times consecutively in one day. Now imagine if that experience were embodied in the voice of a woman narrating a slideshow about Worker's Comp. Now, multiply that by 10. At about 2 minutes, 23 seconds in, the trainer that started it could no longer handle it & said, "Hey, how about if we just email this to you guys & you just watch it later?" Our decision was unanimous. Another trainer, an older lady who hasn't really seemed to have any discernable sense of humor said, "Yeah we showed that to the last class at 3PM on Friday & we nearly died."
Later, they showed us a training video on an "active shooter." I honestly couldn't tell if it was that or a campaign video for one of the current 9500 Republican presidential candidates, or an actual training video produced by the Feds. Fear mongering much? Then, they show us a video on general safety, which was basically, pay attention to your surroundings, if a farmer comes at you with a weapon, get the eff out, buddy system, blah blah blah. As a side note, the trainer tells us, "oh yeah & if you come across a meth lab, leave immediately & report it to the Incident Commander. If you're deployed in Iowa, they're *everywhere* & there's a good chance you could come across them. Oh, & the meth manufacturers also hit the anhydrous ammonia tanks in the fields, sometimes in broad daylight, so watch out for that too." Thanks again, IA. And here I was, a little put off balance by the Kum & Go convenience stores.
They provided us with a roster of everyone in our class (20 of us) w/ name, address, phone #'s. At one point, I was so bored that I manually entered everyone of my classmates' info into my i-phone. It took me a little over an hour. On the upside, I listened to a LOT of Foo Fighters & Pearl Jam during the interminable boredom I experienced today AND ate lunch outside w/ some of my homies & went for a walk after that w/ a couple of them. It was a beautiful day, sunny w/ big puffy white clouds. I think it got up to about 80 degrees today. Back at home, I heard that it got up to 103. I definitely think I got the better deal on that front.
We still don't know where or when we'll be deployed. I believe it has been 9 days since a new outbreak was detected, which is very, very good. I really hope I get deployed w/ this group. Its amazing how much we've bonded in only two days. I think I will have made some lifelong friends here in Ames.
I spent hours looking at various presentations & documents. Some links lead back to places I had already been & a LOT had information that was already covered in a different document/slideshow/whatever. I was pretty much done with my work by about 1. We didn't leave the facility until 4:45.
The trainers put a couple of shorter presentations up on a screen. One was about Worker's Comp, had to be probably over 45 min, maybe an hour. It was a slideshow with a poorly mic'd woman narrating over it. Now, this wasn't just any woman's voice. Imagine, if you will, the most boring lecture or class you've ever attended. Imagine if you attended that 12 times consecutively in one day. Now imagine if that experience were embodied in the voice of a woman narrating a slideshow about Worker's Comp. Now, multiply that by 10. At about 2 minutes, 23 seconds in, the trainer that started it could no longer handle it & said, "Hey, how about if we just email this to you guys & you just watch it later?" Our decision was unanimous. Another trainer, an older lady who hasn't really seemed to have any discernable sense of humor said, "Yeah we showed that to the last class at 3PM on Friday & we nearly died."
Later, they showed us a training video on an "active shooter." I honestly couldn't tell if it was that or a campaign video for one of the current 9500 Republican presidential candidates, or an actual training video produced by the Feds. Fear mongering much? Then, they show us a video on general safety, which was basically, pay attention to your surroundings, if a farmer comes at you with a weapon, get the eff out, buddy system, blah blah blah. As a side note, the trainer tells us, "oh yeah & if you come across a meth lab, leave immediately & report it to the Incident Commander. If you're deployed in Iowa, they're *everywhere* & there's a good chance you could come across them. Oh, & the meth manufacturers also hit the anhydrous ammonia tanks in the fields, sometimes in broad daylight, so watch out for that too." Thanks again, IA. And here I was, a little put off balance by the Kum & Go convenience stores.
They provided us with a roster of everyone in our class (20 of us) w/ name, address, phone #'s. At one point, I was so bored that I manually entered everyone of my classmates' info into my i-phone. It took me a little over an hour. On the upside, I listened to a LOT of Foo Fighters & Pearl Jam during the interminable boredom I experienced today AND ate lunch outside w/ some of my homies & went for a walk after that w/ a couple of them. It was a beautiful day, sunny w/ big puffy white clouds. I think it got up to about 80 degrees today. Back at home, I heard that it got up to 103. I definitely think I got the better deal on that front.
We still don't know where or when we'll be deployed. I believe it has been 9 days since a new outbreak was detected, which is very, very good. I really hope I get deployed w/ this group. Its amazing how much we've bonded in only two days. I think I will have made some lifelong friends here in Ames.
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