News: Wicked, Mentor Program, Flag Half Staff

I took Alicia to see the musical Wicked on Tuesday (it's playing until the end of the month). Granted, I lost a few man-points when I told the guys on the ship about it, but honestly that was a small price to pay. Look, I'm not cultured enough to tell you all of the ins and outs of Wicked, but I do know enough to tell you to go. There are even some Wild at Heart moments in there, so it's definitely worth it as a man. As a farm boy from Kansas who grew up with the Wizard of Oz, I was impressed with how true to the story they stayed while developing the plot of this musical. If you live in one of the tour cities and you do anything this year, you have to see this musical!

Regular readers will have noticed that this week I created a separate label for mentoring. I did this because I'm going to start posting on it more often. One reason for this is that I am the mentorship coordinator for Combat Systems Department on the USS Antietam. I have learned a great deal about mentoring by being in that position. My second reason is, and this is most important, that I have been passionate about mentoring since I was stationed in Japan. I am cautiously moving ahead with the knowledge I have, and the experiences I've gained thus far, to share my experiences with you. Please take a gander and let me know what you think!

Finally, today was the first day that the flags were at half-mast for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. It honestly doesn't matter how one feels about the man, it is always a privilege for a ship to honor a distinguished American. The flags will remain at half-mast until sunset on the 30th of August as per the President of the United States.