(no subject)

[winterbadger]

Rules
1. Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll reply and give you five questions to answer.
3. You'll update your LJ with the five questions answered.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

questions from shy_kat

1. What was the happiest moment of your life?
It would be terribly romantic to say the time Chris and I got engaged or the day we got married, but the first I was hanign onto a cliff face for dear life and the second was such a welter of confusion, worry, and anticlimax (we both got to the hotel after the reception and were totally paralyzed by the sudden realization we didn't knwo what to do--it was the middle of the afternoon and having sex seemed oddly in approprite.)

Probably the first night Chris and I slept together (even with the exploding toilet) or the first night Liz and I slept together. Each had had such a lead-up and was the culmination of so much love and desire and excitement... :-) They are two of the loveliest women in the world, and I love them both so much, even if we're not together any more.

2. What's the most difficult thing you've accomplished?
Persuading Chris to marry me? ;-) No, because I didn't really persuade her to do anything she didn't want to do.

Accepting that the dream job I wanted for years was never going to happen? No, because, 15 years later, it may actually be available if I still want it after all this time (whether it turns out to be a dream or not is a different matter).

Getting onto the Foreign Service Register. I had to do that all by myself, starting with taking and passing the written exam, taking and passing the oral exam, and then getting through all of the hurdles of getting a clearance just out of college and getting the medical certification (which was in some ways the hardest part). Yep. And then, after I accomplished all that? They never offered me a post, because it was the Reagan years and American didn't want a Foreign Service.

3. If you could visit any one time and place, what would it be?
There are so many! And one can always fall into the trap of thinking one would learn about specific events; but, of course, if one were in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, one might see nothing at all of the shooting of President Kennedy, or nothing more than all the other witnessess saw. Be present at the signing of some great document or the entry of some famous person itno some famous place, well, there it is, it's happened, you saw it, now it's time to go home.

And stories always show that one can't *change* the past when one goes back. So trying to save Charles I (was he even worth it, really, the pig-headed git?) or persuade the Council at Derby that if theey just pushed further south into England the Hanoverians would flee (would Britain really have been better under Catholic Polish kings than GErman Protestant ones?

So I'll go with a vantage point overlooking any of the pivotal battles of the English Civil Wars, the American Revolution, or the Napoleonic Wars. I've spent so much time studying these, I'd really like to see one actually unfolding where I could see it and find out if it's anything like all the guesses that historians have made over the years.

4. What drew you to redactrice (way back when...)?
She was part of the circle of friends I hung out with in college, and she was always cheerful and friendly (as she remains to this day). She was also very pretty (as she also remains :-) She was kind to me. :-)

5. What percentage of the games that you own have you actually played?
Overall, probably less than half. Of the historical boardgames, 10-15% I've probably played many, many times; probably about another 15-20% I've played once or set up multiple times but either not played or played only part of them. Of the CCGs I've only played L5R and the ACW one more than once; you and I played Dune and 7th Sea and LBS once each, IIRC; the others (Mythos, Buffy, LOTR, B5, Holy Grail, ??) I've not played yet. Of the "German" games I've probably played a much hihger percentage than any other group, because so many more people are interested in playing them

If I had untold wealth, among the many things I'd do with be share it with several of my friends so there would be other people who only worked when they wanted to, so I would have people to game with :-)

Comments

[azbound.livejournal.com]

I would like to be interviewed. You up for questions from me?

[winterbadger]

I'll be happy to trade questions with you.

[liatha.livejournal.com]

--it was the middle of the afternoon and having sex seemed oddly in approprite.

Sex is NEVER inappropriate... time of day is irrelevant.

Ok... maybe it's possible for location to be relevant. It might be inapproriate to have sex... say... on the alter of the local catholic church at noon... but in a hotel room at noon? I say go for it!

[winterbadger]

It wasn't the place or the time so much as just... it's hard to describe. Everything had been focussed on the ceremony for so long that, once it was all over and we'd been driven to the Ritz ( by a hired chauffeur who looked like John Candy!), we just wen into our room, put our things down, and said, "Uh, so what do we do next?" "I dunno; do you want to...?" "Oh, no! I just couldn't. I don't knwo why, but..." "That's OK, me neither." I think in the end we took a nap...

[shy-kat.livejournal.com]

Interrogate me!!

What fun!

[sidhne.livejournal.com]

Interview me?

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

Oh, what do I have to lose (except my self respect :::chortle:::)

Ask away....

[archivebear.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm game :).

[azbound.livejournal.com]

And we're off.

1) How many games do you own?

2) Do these pants make my ass look big? ;-)

3) Just what is your fascination with dressing up in period clothes and going out to reenact battles?

4) Name 5 books you'd take to a desert island and why.

5) Are you seeking a monogamous relationship the next time around or a poly relationship?

[winterbadger]

1. Just a rough approximation, but I'd guess between 300 and 350, counting just board and card games. Count potential *decks* of cards, and it's probably closer to 400. Add in RPGs and miniatures rules and it's probably like 450 or so.

2. Yes, but(t) that's a good thing. :-P

3. It lets me get away from the rest of life and concetrate on a very small subset of it, with readily identifiable and acheivable goals. And it lets me pretend I'm in the military, even if we're all conscious of how fake it is, for a little while. And it puts me in tough with history in a way I can't get by reading books. You meet some damn interesting people. You get some exercise and spend a weekend in the great outdoors. I get to yell at people (just a little :-). Always opportunities for singing. Used to be a regular booze-up too, but less so as I get old and creaky. And, not least of all, it gives me a chance to talk to the public and do a little educating (and a little learning).

4. The Christian Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, because I've never read any of them all the way through, and that's pretty sad considering my track record with religion :-) King Hereafter, because I would have to have at least one Dorothy Dunnett book, and that's the longest and most complex. And the Riverside Shakespeare, because that's all his plays in one volume ;-)

5. I kept thinking that I'd try monogamy this time. But I can't seem to find any monogamous people where their's mutual clickage (chemistry, call it what you will) and I keep meeting poly people that I do click with. So I'm thinking that it's going to be poly for the moment.

[ladyjillian.livejournal.com]

Getting onto the Foreign Service Register. I had to do that all by myself, starting with taking and passing the written exam, taking and passing the oral exam, and then getting through all of the hurdles of getting a clearance just out of college and getting the medical certification (which was in some ways the hardest part). Yep. And then, after I accomplished all that? They never offered me a post, because it was the Reagan years and American didn't want a Foreign Service.

Damn, that brings back memories, and not entirely good ones.... When I get home I'll have to see if I can find my 'how I failed the Foreign Service exam' story. I took the written when I was in grad school, then went to Ireland to work for a while--by the time I heard they wanted me to come in for the oral it was too late to do it in California, so I had to fly to DC. I stayed with my then-boyfriend's mother in the Watergate, met lots of undersecretaries for this and that (I knew one already, a former professor of mine), went to parties (one for Charles Robb, I remember) and all that--so by the time I took the exam I'd worked up a massive bad attitude, with predictable consequences--I failed the oral, though perhaps not by as much as I would have expected. I thought it was hilarious then, and still do.

As it turns out, though, it might have been the right decision--even if I had been offered a job (I've been #1 on the list for months in similar circumstances twice since then and not been offered a post) I'd probably be stamping visas in Outer Mongolia by now. Engineering turned out to be a much better way for me to see the world.

[winterbadger]

The second time I took the orals (I stayed on the register for the whole period, two years or whatever it was, without getting aposting offer, even in Outer Mongolia; so then I had to start over again with the written exam) I was in a group that included the daughter of a US ambassador (who didn't pass!) and, unlike the first time, they told us that day whether we passed or not. And the lot of us who didn't pass all went off to some place in Georgetown (I forget where) to have a drink. After comparing exam experiences, it became very clear that the examiners had been deliberately failing anyone who expressed interest in or appreciation for other cultures. This wasn't just a desire to avoid people who might "go native"; it was an intention to only pick people who would not mingle with local people, who would not *learn* the local *languages*, who would avoid all but official business contacts with people for the country where they were stationed. It was really depressing, as it did not at all reflect the selection practices I had seen the first time around or what I've seen in FSOs that I've met in the past.

[selki.livejournal.com]

Well, it certainly matches the experience of someone I know. If your secretary, houseboy, other people you've been around daily or with whom you've built working relationships of mutual respect are now being swept up in ethnic cleansing (killing or being killed/fleeing), it's probably easier to live with your government's hands-off policy if you've never had a personal conversation with any of them, never gone out with them to a local bar/concert/game, etc. You're less likely to quit, or say/do anything to embarrass your office.

The person I know left the foreign service, and it bugs me that to this day people who don't understand the horror of the situation above think this person was "ungrateful" or "overemotional" for doing so.

[ladyjillian.livejournal.com]

That makes sense--I know several FSOs and former FSOs and while they appear to have established relationships with each other, and with representatives of other governments, I don't know any who appear to have made friends with people outside the government circle. I do know several who knew or learned the local languages, though a few days ago I heard a good line from a former FSO on her language skills--'I don't understand anything you wouldn't talk about in a visa interview.'

Here's my story, from my memoirs in progress:

In December 1986 I sat for the Foreign Service written exam as a lark, and was soon notified that I had passed. The second phase of the selection process, an all day series of interviews, was scheduled to take place in the Bay Area the following summer; I spent that summer in Ireland, however, and was unable to participate. So, when I returned to the States, Keith and I flew out to Washington so that I could take the test there.

The first half of the day was taken up with what I understand are now largely discredited management school tests, as well as an interview consisting of one question from each Foreign Service specialty. I recall my economics question--"how do you explain rising inflation combined with rising unemployment and poor economic performance?"--and my answer--"I have no idea"--at the time I didn't appreciate how difficult this question actually was.

The second half of the day was a group exercise. I and six other candidates were asked to divide the foreign aid budget for a small Third World country. Each of us was given a packet describing a project we would support. The allocations for all of the projects would exceed our budget, so we would have to negotiate with each other.

I opened my packet. Ask for 100% of the budget to chop down the country's rainforests, sell the hardwood, and use the newly cleared land for rice paddies. It didn't take me too long to prepare a position. When we gathered around the table, I asked to present first. I described the proposed undertaking. "This is a monumentally stupid idea," I concluded, "and I would like to recommend that zero percent of the budget be allocated to it." The committee's agreement was unanimous, and thus I am now writing my memoirs in New Orleans in stead of stamping visas in Outer Mongolia.

An interesting postscript to this story occurred a few years later. After telling it to an acquaintance, she pressed me with questions. What kinds of projects did the other candidates get? Well, I don't recall precisely--a rural electrification scheme, a literacy program, the production of a simple alternative technology device. Doesn't it strike you as odd, she continued, that of all the possible projects you could have been given, you got the one project that you could not possibly have advocated? Put that way, I guess it does seem more than coincidental.

[winterbadger]

I discovered later that part of the test is actually testing your reactions to tests. If one received a question in the viva voce section that you couldn't answer (I got one "describe significant American contributions to art an literature, by era") you could say so and ask for a different question. But they didn't tell you that unless you asked.

I also recall one part of my first oral exam in which I was asked how I would deal with a situation in which a young American joined a religious cult in the country where I was stationed and his or her parents came to the embassy and demanded we get their kid out. I went through all the options I could think of, and the examiner thought of a way around all of them. It was quite the role playing game.

I was very frustrated when I didn't get a posting, because I had participated in a State Department training exercise my senior year in college. They had a "wargame" (a diplomatic crisis game, really) that they were planning to introuce in their trianing curriculum, and they came to my college (and, I assume, many others) to try it out on a group of foreign affairs majors first. I had the role of DCM in the relevant US Embassy, did a good job of it (not just my opinion, the organizer from State said so and urged several of us to take the exams), helping us work through the options and "win" the scenario. I think that was when I decided that I would really enjoy actually being an FSO, rather than pretending to be an FSO while working for someone else.

[blackperson.livejournal.com]

Ask me something!

[ladyjillian.livejournal.com]

That is the funniest damn user picture--I'm absolutely enthralled by it.

[blackperson.livejournal.com]

Stop, drop and roll...