Category: The Beginning
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#16: Academy Life Part IV
“An army marches on its stomach.” Inconclusively and ironically attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. As outlined in Blog #15, our training facilities and amenities have relatively little consistency. The availability, proximity, and type of lodging are combined with budgetary limitations and enrollment quantity to be the driving force behind the accommodations offered to us at a…
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#12: Leaving D.C.
“I think the tough times are finally behind me. There will always be bad things, but my life is good. It is as I want it to be. It’s good.” -Sera, played by Elizabeth Shue in the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas. What is your travel style? I know men who refuse to check a…
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#11: Where It All Began – Part 1
“Even though none of us had ever seen a Playboy magazine (which we constantly lied about), we figured going to the pool was the next best thing…” The Narrator of the 1993 film The Sandlot. Before I get to my story, a bit of encouragement for those of you who aren’t CPR certified: Heart disease…
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#10: Vexillology
…continued from Blog #9 Upon completion of Orientation, my workgroup will spend much of the remainder of the year in what is known as follow-on training specific to our position. There remains a pass/fail component to this furthered education, much like how police officers, firefighters, and military personnel still need to pass basic training before…
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#9: Orientation
“A 55-year-old garbage man is a million times smarter than a 28-year-old with three PhD’s. Especially smarter than him, because this idiot has been thinking about three things for like 15 years.” -Comedian Louis C.K. during his Oh My God special in 2013. …continued from Blog #7 Packed into a secure government auditorium is a…
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#8: Sold!
“I’ve always felt very temporary about myself.” -John Cusack, portraying the character of Martin Blank in the 1997 dark humor film Grosse Pointe Blank. Several years ago one evening I was at the local grocery store after work, quietly debating with myself the importance of the word “organic”, when I received a call informing me…
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#7: “What would you say…you do here?”
Title quote taken from the movie Office Space. Thousands of U.S. federal government employees, representing a very wide array of disciplines, are not just working but also living overseas at any given time. In over 175 countries there are U.S. citizens tasked with spreading peace and prosperity while preserving the American way of life. Many…
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#6: A Close Up View of Our Nation’s Capital
“Wherever the American citizen may be a stranger, he is at home here.” -Frederick Douglass, speaking of Washington, D.C. in 1877 Nearly two decades ago this very week, I stood atop the marble steps of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on a gloomy winter day in Washington, D.C. My thick jacket, gloves, and beanie felt foreign…
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#4: Move Your Life: Packout
The doorbell rang at 8:00am sharp, but I didn’t need to look at the clock to know it was the movers. I could hear the massive 14.8-liter Detroit Diesel idling under the hood of the sparkling clean 2016 Freightliner Cascadia semitruck parked in front of my soon-to-be empty house. After the veteran driver gave me…
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#3: Measure Your Life: Preparing for the Move
“And you’re really spread out now, you’ve got s—t all over the world! You’ve got stuff at home, stuff in storage, stuff in Honolulu, stuff in Maui, stuff in your pockets; supply lines are getting longer and harder to maintain.” -Comedian George Carlin at Comic Relief in 1986 They say you don’t realize how much…
The Dark Passport 