Fun in the Sun

Tonight I learned that peanut oil is perfect for frying because it has a neutral flavor and a high smoke point.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

I'd actually intended to write this post a couple days ago, but I was tired when I got home and didn't feel like writing in yesterday. Today was also pretty lazy with the day split between doing some cleaning in the office at the home and doing some dork-work in EQ2. I'm so ashamed.

Anyways, I figured I'd go ahead and show some of the fun and excitement that being a recruiter can entail.

This is the set up we had. Off to the left you'll see the football toss. Next to the football toss is the rock wall. I don't know who suggested ordering a bunch of rock walls for recruiting purposes, but whoever it was should be forced to spend an afternoon in a Phoenix summer helping people get in and out of the harnesses they have to wear. Unpleasantess, they name is thigh sweat.


Next to the rock wall is our little table set up where we got rid of handed out useful information and trinkets. It was interesting to hear a couple folks ask for Army Strong gear. However we didn't have any because having handouts branded with the new slogan at a NASCAR event just made too much sense. And off the the right under the second tent is one of the newly leased Army H3s. The new H3s really are slick looking, and stupidly I didn't take a picture of it close-up. The vehicle is branded with the Army logo, and comes equipped with a TV and sound system that makes me jealous.


This was the peak crowd we got all day. If you notice the H3 is being completely ignored. One of the recruiters there supporting this event was someone who's been recruiting for all of two weeks. No it's not Army Sean, although he is about as cherry. We spent some time talking and he heard me talking with another recruiter and asked us why we sounded so disgruntled. To explain why this other recruiter (who is leaving shortly after the new year) and I were sitting there being less than cheery I went down the sequence of events with this new recruiter.

We had to report for duty at 0630 so we could get to the track by 0700. The gates opened at 1000. Between 0700 and 1000 we had to set up a rock wall, a football toss, three insta-tents, an ID tage machine, and an H3. We had 10 recruiters for these tasks. We were done by 0715. I myself racked out in the driver's seat of one of the support vehicles until about 0900 after we were done setting up. We were there so we could showcase the Army to the public. All of about 100 people who came up to the display and filled out the lead card/safety release so their 8 year old could climb the wall. And for this event there were 10 recruiters and several thousand dollars spent to rent the space where we set up. Oh, and it was all on a three-day weekend too. That was part of why the soon-to-be-departing recruiter and I were so very disgruntled that afternoon.

It's the pointless busy work that drives me insane. This Friday simply put it into action. Everyone in my station who had worked a race weekend before knew that the Thursday and Friday set-ups were a pointless waste. Only the most diehard of race fans show up for the truck series qualifying, and slightly more show up for the Busch series qualifying. There was simply no one there. The poor location where we were didn't help matters, but even prime real estate by the team vendors wouldn't have seriously altered the dynamic. The National Guard, Air Force, and Navy all had set-ups going on, and there were as many recruiters at the other three set-ups combined as there were for ours. The Guard had a much better location and still had half the people working that we did. And from what I could see they didn't run into any problems with having too large a crowd and not enough personnel to manage them. There was simply no practical point to having as many people working the event as we did, and it was something plainly visible to those who had worked the races before.

Oh well, weekend is almost done. The time is drawing to a close where I get to go unshaven. Too bad, I look decent with a goatee. It distracts from the rapidly retreating hairline.