Lemme 'splain something here...

Orientation & Training: How To Survive Information Overload

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:25:08 -0400

Orientation for foreign service specialists is three weeks of information overload. It is meant to introduce us to the culture of the Department of State (DoS) and Foreign Service (FS), but we also have tons of paperwork, long lectures, security briefings to increase paranoia, information on how not to piss off ambassadors, and if we are lucky, the occasional bathroom break and a couple times even a lunch break. We have homework, we have writing exercises, and we have limited time to do any of the homework or online lessons during the working day. Which is manageable if you are just hopping on the FSI shuttle to Oakwood but really annoying if you are one of the local hires (aka those who get screwed). My commute (via MARC train and then Metro, then shuttle bus) ranges from 1.5 to 2 hours EACH WAY. Needless to say, I have been exhausted. Add to that the fact that my weekends have also been packed with various social commitments and required functions, and you have a recipe for exhaustion.

I have been though the first week of my specialization training, it is a total of three weeks. Again, a lot more information but the day is shorter: 9 to 4 instead of 8 to 5. We get actual breaks and class time to work on assignments. It is so much better but I still have the nasty commute.

With all this, I haven’t had time to update and honestly no one would really be too interested in details of orientation. And no one wants to hear about how I learned how to use the system to do up cables or crap like that.

So yesterday I had planned to do NOTHING. Except watch Doctor Who at 8pm of course. And I did NOTHING. I was in jammies ALL day, I took a long nap, I rested, I pretty much turned my brain off. I did some laundry and sorted some more stuff to take to Sudan. That was it. Today I still feel like I have a major energy deficit so I’m going to chill most of today too. It is long overdue and desperately needed for my sanity and health.

That said, I do hope to gather up the energy to talk about my FLAG DAY! So stay tuned.

Photo

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:48:31 -0400

mad-untempered-schism: So… David Tennant married Georgia...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:47:57 -0400

mad-untempered-schism:

So… David Tennant married Georgia Moffett (the tenth Doctor’s daughter in Series 4, Episode 6 ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’, who is Peter Davison’s daughter (fifth Doctor), and who used to go to school with Colin Baker’s (sixth Doctor) daughter. Then Georgia and David had a daughter.

So, the Doctor’s daughter played the Doctor’s daughter in ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’, was friends with the Doctor’s daughter and then had the Doctor’s daughter..

Mindf**k or what?

if John Barrowman isn’t in the 50th anniversary special i am going to pee in a jar and send it to...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:45:39 -0400

if John Barrowman isn’t in the 50th anniversary special i am going to pee in a jar and send it to the BBC

coolchicksfromhistory: Suffrage hikers arrive in DC on February...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:45:27 -0400

coolchicksfromhistory:

Suffrage hikers arrive in DC on February 28, 1913.

Photos via the Library of Congress

Although the hike was largely considered successful, at times the hikers were harassed along the way. Young boys threw snowballs at the hikers in Leiperville, PA. Students at the University of Maryland insulted the marchers and ripped the banners off their baggage car.

When the hikers marched through DC, they were greeted with both cheers and jeers. Sara T. Moller later testified, “When Rosalie Jones and her pilgrims arrived, we had a very difficult time in front of headquarters. We had telephoned the police, and even then the crowd was very badly handled. It was very rough… I thought that was very ominous of what might happen on Monday [March 3, the date of the larger suffrage parade].”

obeythedaleks: Sorry I haven’t been on in soooo long! my...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:42:13 -0400

obeythedaleks:

Sorry I haven’t been on in soooo long! my English teacher assigns a million things and I’m soooo stressed right now 😔😨😭 Thank you for following us even though I barely post! So here’s a David Tennant post with a Dalek!!! #doctorwho #dalek #davidtennant #bbc #lookinsnazzy #nicesuit ☀Chrissy by takemetobadwolfbay http://instagr.am/p/XENodIM9Rd/

How to not suck at shopping at Ikea

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:36:00 -0400

One of the fun parts about Foreign Service (well not really) is that in addition to housing, most posts also provide furniture. It’s decent but not necessarily either 1) to your taste or 2) very attractive. It’s part of the lifestyle though. At some posts you can opt to have the FS furniture removed and bring your own, it’s not always the case though. Occasionally you may serve a one year tour in DC, which usually means apartment living and furniture is not provided. Your worldly goods are stored for you if you don’t take it with you.

Keeping all that in mind, we have significantly downsized our belongings and are continuing to do so. We have also sold our large, ornate, heavy, dark room-clogging furniture and replaced it with smaller, lighter (both physically and in color) stuff that will easily fit in small apartments/rooms. Sure some locations have large houses but we feel that it is better to be prepared for the small and then cope with larger. It’ll end up feeling more spacious anyway. I get claustrophobic in rooms clogged with furniture and clutter.

So, as we have sold off the big stuff, we used the money we made to replace it with smaller, lighter stuff. Stuff that will easily fit in small rooms, easily disassembled and reassembled, etc. We have made several trips to Ikea to do this. The flat packaging means easy transport, even in a small vehicle. We can easily measure, test out and examine the furniture and look at the different color/material options. We can get ideas from the demo rooms. Drake loves getting to go to the play area. We can grab breakfast and/or lunch. It’s easy to navigate if you know what you are doing. If we know what we want we can check inventory ahead of time and find the warehouse location, thus saving time.

I’ve found some things intriguing/annoying about the Ikea shopping experience though, usually related to other shoppers. It is interesting to see how many families use a trip to Ikea as an outing for their entire extended family, I’m talking like 2-3 car loads of people. Problem is, they all wander around like lost water buffalo, clogging the aisle as they walk slowly having to stop and look at EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. I also see large families that seem to think that every one of their six kids need a cart to push. They’ll put one small item in each cart. WHY? And they move in an inverted V formation, again hogging the entire aisle. In the store AND warehouse. And most of the time the parents are completely oblivious to what their kids are doing, which is usually running around, climbing on towers of boxes, running in front of the impossible to control trolleys of other shoppers, etc. Then you’ve got the people who can’t just go to the stock location and grab their items. They have to park their cart in the middle of the aisle or on the opposite side of what they are looking at, while they stand in the area next to the cart, again blocking the entire damn aisle. And as you leave, the busy loading area has a half dozen cars parked there unattended while the owner decides to go in for an ice cream and come out with an entire new living room. In the meantime there are dozens of people waiting to get a spot there so they can load their furniture and go. So here’s 7 simple rules for not being a douche when you go to Ikea.

7 Rules for Courteous Ikea Shopping

If you for some reason feel the need to bring your ENTIRE EXTENDED FAMILY don’t treat the aisle like it’s your own private promenade deck. Fine, walk as slowly as you want, stopping every two feet to gaze in wonder at yet another piece of furniture, but don’t hog the entire aisle with your brood.
Also if #1 applies to you, you do not need to get a shopping cart for every single one of your six kids to push with one item in each cart. If you still feel that you MUST do this, form a single file line. You are not a football team; other shoppers need to get through.
Yes, you have to pick up the boxes of furniture yourself and assemble your furniture puzzle yourself at home. Ikea staff will help you locate and load your boxes if you ask, but bitching about having to do it just means you are an idiot who apparently has minimal reading comprehension. After all you passed about 500 signs explaining this on your way to the warehouse. Don’t be a dick to Ikea staff just because you feel you are too good to grab your own boxes
When picking up your furniture in the warehouse, remember you are not the only people in the store. Therefore do not park your cart in the middle of the aisle while you stand slack jawed and gazing confusedly at the stacks of boxes.
Ikea furniture trolleys do not steer well. Be prepared.
If #1 applies, please do not let your kids run wild all over the warehouse while you do #4. Especially if you take into consideration #5. If I run over your screeching banshee of a kid with my trolley full of heavy boxes while they are acting like they are on a playground and being completely ignored by you, it’s really not my fault. Nor is it Ikea’s fault despite the crappy and difficult to control trolley.
DO NOT PARK IN THE GOD DAMN LOADING AREA AND THEN LEAVE YOUR CAR TO GO SHOPPING. I don’t give a damn if you are just running in to get ice cream. Don’t do this. In the time you leave your damn car parked there to run in and get ice cream and decide to pick up several other things, I could have parked my vehicle, loaded it and left. So could some of the other dozen people hanging around waiting while their friend/family member has to keep circling the loading area, waiting for a spot to open.

questionableadvice: ~ One Thousand Simple Soups, by Olive...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 03:43:34 -0500

questionableadvice:

~ One Thousand Simple Soups, by Olive Green, 1907

Eating worms out of courtesy? Maybe I am not cut out for this whole diplomacy thing.

Under Pressure

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:17:00 -0500

So you all know I love my slow cooker. I’ve raved about it in blog posts, tweets and on Facebook. I’ve written haiku in honor of it. Well the love affair has been pushed aside. I bought a pressure cooker.

I’ve been hearing a bit about them, especially when I used to do jam and jelly canning but the image in my mind was always something like this:

Yeah, something that is so scary looking that you’d want an engineering degree to operate it. Look at it! You have to BOLT THE LID DOWN. I was always afraid if I got one that the lid would blow off, boiling steam would engulf me, and I’d end up looking like the guys in that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark with the faces melting off. I was so very wrong.

Modern pressure cookers have come a long way. There are a myriad of safety features and they are much simpler. And quite inexpensive. You can even get an electronic version, although from research I have found that they apparently don’t work quite as well as the stove top version. I decided that since I will be moving to a new country every couple years, a stove top version was the wisest choice so I don’t have to worry about it being compatible with different outlets and voltages and whatever the hell else I’ll have to deal with and yes I know I can get a transformer but been there done that, seen them burn out.

On impulse I grabbed one for $45 on my last trip to Ikea and it’s pretty simple:

Even comes with a nifty steaming insert. For the entire long weekend I played with it and fell in love quickly. I made homemade vegetable, chicken and beef stocks that were amazingly flavorful and took maybe an hour to prepare. Last night I had a whole chicken with sides of potatoes, carrots, celery and fennel from fridge to table in less than an hour. And let me tell you, when it comes to taste and flavor the pressure cooker wins over the slow cooker. The meat is juicier and more tender. Cheap cuts come out amazing (I made a beef soup out of the leftover beef and veggies from the beef stock…and there were some really cheap cuts in there that just melted in your mouth).

I think my favorite stock was the vegetable stock. I kind of threw together a rough version based on court bouillon recipes from the likes of Alton Brown and Julia Child and put my own spin on it. So, water + white wine. Carrots, celery, onion, garlic, kale, fennel bulbs, sweet potato, and parsnips. Greek oregano, tarragon, basil, sage, cumin, and a few dashes of herb & spice blends that my sister sent me from The Spice House. It was AMAZING. Let it cool and you can scrap off any fat from the top.

I am kicking myself for not getting a pressure cooker sooner. My slow cooker is a fancy model that is also a rice cooker. I don’t think it’ll be used for anything but rice anymore.

Adventure Awaits - Part 2

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:30:28 -0500

I received my official salary offer (quite good, way more than anticipated, looks like my education and experience have FINALLY paid off), signed off on all the initial paperwork (it’s the government, there will be tons more to come) and accepted the position. I begin training at the end of March in the 129th Foreign Service Specialist class. I won’t find out until the final week of orientation which country I’ll be going to, but as a wise man once said “There are no bad posts, only bad people.” Your dream post can be another person’s nightmare post. That cushy posting to Paris could end up a living hell if you end up with a bunch of jerks. It’s the people you work with that make all the difference. And of course if it sucks, at least you know it’s only for 2 years then you get to move on to a new place and a new adventure!

Adventure awaits!

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:33:28 -0500

I received my invitation to the 129th Foreign Service Specialist class which will start in late March! I sent in my paperwork so they can do up the final job offer so…more waiting! Depending on where I get posted and the timeline an needs of the embassy/consulate I could conceivably ship out as early as MID MAY! I’m concerned that I might get send somewhere that I won’t have immediate access to the Dr. Who 50th anniversary special when it comes out. That’s upsetting.

questionableadvice: ~ The Twentieth Century Cook Book, 1914via...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:39:34 -0500

questionableadvice:

~ The Twentieth Century Cook Book, 1914
via internet archive

“The woman who does her own cooking will do it easier and take greater pleasure in her work if she is properly dressed.”

This sums it up pretty well. Most people, unless they are going...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:27:00 -0500

This sums it up pretty well. Most people, unless they are going through or have gone through the process don’t understand how selective the foreign service is and how difficult and stressful the process is. Getting to the register on my first go is something I’m damn proud of but I’m also terrified that the folks in congress are going to keep being jerks about the budget and there will end up being a hiring freeze or something and I’ll expire off the register and have to start all over again. And sure, I’ve got a nice federal job but it is just supposed to be until I get into an orientation class. Ugh.

A long overdue update!

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:18:00 -0500

It’s been a few months, I admit I’ve been slacking but hopefully next year I will do much better. The big news is that after almost a year of tests, essays, assessments, interviews, investigations and whatnot I have finally passed all the tests and stuff, received my top secret clearance and class 1 medical clearance from the State Department and I am on the register awaiting appointment to the Foreign Service! It is a very lengthy and stressful process and I am relieved to have that part over. My husband and I have talked the whole thing over in depth, he is in the military for a few more years still but in a unit that will not be deploying. We felt that this is the best thing for our family, having one of us having a pretty much guaranteed stable income, health insurance, housing, etc for when he gets out of the military (he is hoping to join the FS in an IT role when he gets out). It WILL mean more separations but we’ve been through many very long separations already and we know we are strong enough to handle it.

So for now I have accepted a position with the federal government right on post where we are currently stationed. If I am lucky I might get into a foreign service orientation class in January 2014 (my score puts me near the top of the register for selection). I know the biggest question is where will I be going…and I honestly do not know. There will be a list of available locations I’ll get when I start orientation and I will have to rank them according to preference. For me it will be taking into consideration:

Our financial situation (will it be cheaper to leave Drake here with Tim for the subsidized military child care programs)
Transportation at post (I don’t want to go somewhere that I can’t take one of our vehicles or use public transportation…if I have to fork out money for a new vehicle just for a 2 year tour I don’t plan to bid on that location)
Cost of living (London for example would be crazy expensive, especially when still having to help support 2 households)
Ease of visitation during vacation and R&R and so forth (will airfare to visit Tim & Drake and vice versa be cost prohibitive)
Other stuff…allergies, altitude, etc.

There are around 250 US embassies and consulates around the world, so there’s really no way to know what will be available to me until I get the list at orientation. Ultimately it is up to the State Department to decide where I go, I do get to provide preferences and input but the final decision isn’t truly mine. I’ll just look on it as an adventure! And after a couple years, one that Tim and Drake will be able to enjoy it with me.

Some people have asked how I can possibly consider leaving my son/husband for a year or two. The good news is that unlike the military you don’t get just one 2 week trip home, we can see each other more often than deployed troops. However like the military I must swear to defend the U.S. Constitution and follow the orders of the President (and yes FS is sworn in just like the military) and pretty much let the government own me for a bit so I get similar perks: namely a steady paycheck, housing and healthcare. And even with the economy improving, having those things is still vital, particularly if one doesn’t have to constantly worry that those things will be lost due to layoffs. It’s not much good to my family if I am home with them but can’t help support them. The hubs and I feel that as a married couple, we have agreed to be a team and it is our joint responsibility to provide financial and emotional support as equally as possible. He’s had to deal with some pretty crappy situations due to the military with deployments and unaccompanied tours, months of schooling away from us, and so on. It’s only fair that I should be expected to step up and do the same. So there it is.

Well, you did dare to speak in public, so I guess you deserve this

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:36:27 -0400

Well, you did dare to speak in public, so I guess you deserve this:

Wow. Stay classy conservatives!

I am reading Insurgent ...

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:51:25 -0400

I am reading Insurgent

Check-in to Insurgent on GetGlue.com

Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Work at 5:30 Every Day — And You Should Too

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:12:54 -0400

Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Work at 5:30 Every Day — And You Should Too:

Somewhere along the line, ending one’s workday before 8:00 p.m. became a source of shame and sign of laziness — or at least that’s what many of us have tricked ourselves into believing. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is familiar with the funny, uncertain feeling that comes with c…

3 Things Employment Sites Do That Suck

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 06:57:06 -0500

Pretty much all employment, at least for large employers, is done online. In general I don’t think companies really give a damn about the people submitting applications, all they care about is that one of those people who happen upon the site is someone that is suitable for the job. Thing is…there’s something called courtesy. You don’t want your time wasted, so don’t waste other people’s time. It’s a reasonable concept.

1. Do NOT have applicants upload a resume AND cut and paste the text of a resume AND fill in job information. Seriously.

2. In fact filling in job information sucks anyway. And don’t give me that crap about proving that you REALLY want the job by taking the time to fill it all in. Offer a resume upload and ask for some highlights/accomplishments from the jobs. That’s plenty.

3. Post the freaking salary. If I’m out of work and applying everywhere like crazy, I do not want to waste my time applying places only to find out the pay is a joke much later.

Truth

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:38:56 -0500

Garden gnomes are cool.

5 things that I think are as addictive as crack

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:47:05 -0500

Mind you, I’ve never tried crack but hey, plenty of people have never tried science, research and reason and still insist in believing crazy, inaccurate stuff.

1. Junior Mints.

2. Pringles.

3. My homemade parmesan rosemary crackers.

4. Starbucks Frappiccinos.

5. Saganaki.