This is the end

Well folks, it appears that the State Department uncovered my true identity through their background investigation. My boss asked me very politely today to put the blog on ice and I have decided to honor his request.

To be honest, I hate the idea of self-censorship, but it looks like I have no way around it while I'm a Presidential Management Fellow. I can't have my (possibly controversial) personal views to undermine the credibility of the policy advice I will dispense over the next two years.

I never really imagined sticking with the civil service until retirement. This is just more of an incentive to explore all of my options when my PMF bid is up.

I don't know whether I will need to delete the blog entirely or just let it gather dust until I'm no longer a government official. For now, it will gather dust.

I'd like to end activity on this blog by giving an enormous 'thank you' to my readers. You are what made this blog worthwhile. I will miss our conversations and your always relevant input and criticism.

Update (10/3/2007): Thanks again for all of the support. You've encouraged me to talk to DS about keeping the blog, but refocusing it on my photoshoping and artwork. I can't let this creative outlet completely go to waste.

DISCLAIMER: The following posts represent only my personal views prior to October 1, 2007. They have no bearing on the advice may provide to current or future employers.

Vacation pictures!

I apologize for the lack of updates recently, but a whirlwind trip to San Diego and my transition to the State Department have been keeping my pretty busy. I should have everything straightened out soon.

I did upload some shots from my vacation though. I'm particularly proud of this picture of a tiny sand crab. Macro photography hasn't been easy for me.

I will also have a review for The Kingdom up soon (my girlfriend and I stumbled into a sneak preview last weekend somehow).

In the meantime, here is a music video for the Japanese metal band The Hizaki Grace Project. Hizaki is the blond chick in the red dress totalling shredding on lead guitar in their first hit, "Philosopher."

Hooray for chicks in metal bands.

Back in town

I am back from the Outer Banks. It was a pretty good trip and I only had to work about 12 hours the entire week. I will be posting some pictures that I took using my new camera on my Flickr site today.

I returned to DC to discover that my interim clearance has finally come in at the State Department. I am supposed to start orientation on Monday, but I will be San Diego that day on Army business. So that's going to be a bit of a mess.

In the meantime, I point my readers to two things I stumbled across on vacation. First is this Get Your War On strip from late July:

Sure, sometimes Get Your War On is a little whinny, but sometimes it hits comic gold, such as the above strip. Second, here is a video of guys playing with their home made flamethrower and other such nonsense:

I will have pictures uploaded and movie reviews posted later today. I will do all of that when I get back from San Diego. Sorry about being such a tease.

RE in NC

I've strayed from my native soil of Virginia for a beach vacation in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Unfortunately, tropical storm Gabrielle also decided to visit 'OBX' this week, so I don't know how much time I will be spending on the beach.

If the weather forecasters are correct, I may have plenty of time to update my blog from NC...

Update Madness - 1 June 2007

Faithful readers, the Army is sending me to Stockholm next week and around France the week after. Before you send me a nasty-gram advising me to "stop bragging" about my "awesome job," I will have you know that neither trip will be particularly enjoyable. If you think the politics of defense procurement are ugly here in the United States, imagine what it is like in Europe where most of the defense giants are partially or completely state owned.

Then add to that the years of fridged relations with the Continent since the 2003 invasion of Iraq and you will probably start to see what I mean. Things have improved some now that the Rumster is out of the Pentagon, but it will be another year or two before those in the security cooperation community can shed their bureaucratic parkas.

Worst of all, I will spend 15-20 hours in meetings with a bunch of Swedish defense officials. I seriously doubt any of them will look like this:

I will be back for a few days at the end of next week before I head off to Paris. Check back Wednesday night for new posts and maybe even photos.

Update Madness - 7 April 2007

I apologize for the extreme lack of content recently, but I have been bogged down with a the combination of finals, job hunting and an impending round of negotiations with representatives from Japan's Technical Research and Development Institute (don't both clicking the 'English' link, a new English website hasn't been put up since they moved to the mod.go.jp address). I do have a few things to report that my readers might find interesting:

PMF Job Fair

The Presidential Management Fellows Job Fair was last week. It was fun. I spent most of the day in interviews with State and Defense Department offices.

The highpoint of the day was when I did an interview in the chair storage room adjacent to the main ballroom floor with guy from the Bureau for Intelligence and Research (INR). Apparently after he came back from his lunch break to find some other State Department office squatting in INR interview booth. The worst interview had to be with the Japan desk at East Asia and Pacific Affairs. The interviewer showed up to the convention center 20 minutes late and the office didn't even arranged for booth space!

The "That's our government" award goes to the Missile Defense Agency. Their description of the PMF job included "Graham cracker duty" -- ensuring that three-star general in charge of the Joint Staff/Service Integration Cell receives his daily ration of junk food. I would have been more surprised if I didn't already have to carry out "Popsicle duty" for my boss when he gets back from his mid-day workout at the Pentagon gym.

"teh funney" and Disruptive Technology

Although the Dresden Files is turning out to be a very watchable show, Acceptable.tv is the show filling the void until Battlestar Galactica starts up again in January 2008. The concept is really amazing -- five shorts are aired on VH1 and on the web then the viewers vote for their favorite online. The two shorts with the most votes are invited to make another episode for the next week.

It is amazing how YouTube has evolved into a media format capable of supporting an entire show in just two short years. If acceptable.tv takes off, the YouTube concept will have fully matured into a disruptive technology. Here is Operation Kitten Calendar, a twist on The Apprentice that has survived two weeks of voting:

I promise to put some more analysis on the blog once I get finals wrapped up in a few weeks.

Big News

U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
3/19/2007
MID ATLANTIC SERVICES BRANCH NO
FEDERAL BUILDING
200 GRANBY STREET
SUITE 500
NORFOLK VA 23510-1886


Dear [Robot Economist],


Position: 2007 PRESIDENTIAL MANAGEMENT FELLOWS APPLICATION
Series/Grade: 0352-09
Vacancy ID: 117979
Agency: PMF Program Office
Duty Location: Throughout The Nation, US


SUBJECT: 2007 PMF APPLICATION STATUS

Congratulations! You have been selected as a Finalist for the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program's Class of 2007 and are now eligible for an appointment as a PMF (Fellow). While obtaining an appointment with a Federal Agency is not guaranteed, reaching Finalist status is quite an achievement. To become a Fellow, Finalists must be appointed by a participating agency and be brought on board by March 19, 2008.

The PMF Program provides you with an incredible and unique opportunity for your career. During this era of change in the Federal Government, the need for talented, highly energetic PMFs has never been greater. Please note that competition for PMF appointments can be intense. To be successful in the appointment process, you need to be active, persistent, and flexible in your job search efforts. You may wish to keep your options open to all potential job offers.

Your selection as a Finalist is a testament to the unique contributions that you can bring to the Federal policies, activities, and programs that impact all Americans. We hope that you share our enthusiasm for the PMF Program and choose to be among those who will help shape the future of the Federal Government.

We have assembled additional instructions on the next steps in the selection process and posted them on the PMF website under "Memos to Fellows". Please review these instructions as they contain details about the upcoming Job Fair (April 4-6, 2007, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC), how to update your online resumes, and general program information.

---

Be on the look out for a celebratory Photoshop.

Update Madness 6 March 2007

Faithful readers, I apologize for the lack of posts during weekdays for the last two weeks. My Japanese language exit exam is in two days and I have spent almost every free moment for a fortnight cramming.

I've been cooking up some thoughts on arms control, the North Korea situation, Japanese defense politics and China's self-styled 'peaceful rise' -- spring break is next week, so I should have time to put them all online.

I also wanted to direct everyone's attention to my ClustrMaps. I anticipated only getting a modest amount of traffic, but I am really surprised by the geographic dispersion of my audience. Check out all of those readers in the London area and on the West Coast - definitely not the 'Inside the Beltway' crowd I expected.

I'm really impressed by how dispersed my Chinese visitors have been - Fuzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou (or Hong Kong), Beijing, Shenyang, Harbin, and Lanzhou. The image of the Western-oriented urbanite who lives along China's coast is definitely an undeserved stereotype.

Update Madness February 20, 2007

New digs for Noah Shachtman

For those who haven't heard, one of the kinds of defense technology reporting has moved on to greener blogging pastures at Wired.com. We had a chat earlier today and frankly I'm excited about his prospects at Wired. It is a huge step up in terms of market share and Wired will probably let him cast a wider net in terms of defense topics. John Robb or I might even be able to crosspost some of 'crazy' ideas about fourth generation warfare and defense transformation.

Other stuff

I should received word about final selections for PMF by the end of next week. I'm a bit nervous, but the kind e-mails and comments I've received from readers have been encouraging. To be honest, I'm still dithering between the PMF and staying at GWU to complete a PhD in public policy. My proposal to explore how counterinsurgency theory translates into practice has apparently raised some eyebrows among the National Security Policy program's faculty.

Oh and Happy Birthday to my girlfriend Mary. She has apparently figured out my secret identity and has become a reader herself. What a nerd...

Busy Busy Busy

I have received a few grumpy e-mails regarding my recent lack of posts. The causes of this are twofold:

1) My recently departed boss in the Army secretariat has finally been replaced with a newly-minted SES from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. He's a nice guy with long experience on the business side of security cooperation, but he is a relative lightweight in the technology department. I was elected to give him a tutorial on missile technology and proliferation that inadvertantly ate up a good portion of my week.

2) The recent spate of helo shootdowns shootdowns has whipped the defense science community into a stir. Weapons managers are once again looking at the relative efficacy of different countermeasures technologies. One thing is for certain, I've heard the word "dazzler" more times in the last week than it is typically used at the average cheerleading competition.

I was originally planning on posting something about MANPADS, but David Hambling beat me to the punch over at DT. I may still write something about U.S. efforts to reign in MANPADS proliferation, provided it doesn't bore my readers.

My boss is also having be write a criticism of DOD attempts at 'defense transformation' that I think I post later this week.

Update Madness - 29 January 2007

Three days until the Presidential Management Fellows exam. In between now and then, I have 80 pages of reading to complete, four hours of class, 16 hours in the office and an all-day conference hosted at LMI's corporate headquaters.

Needless to say, I will be busy. I'll be back sometime Thursday afternoon. Wish me luck.

Update: I know this George Washington video is a little old, but it is still hilarious.

Update Madness - 16 January 2007

Today was the first of class for my final semester as a graduate student at GWU. Its a class about defense transformation being taught by a former Army colonel with a PhD from John Hopkins and it is shaping up to be pretty boring. Reading list is good though... Willitblend.com has a slew of new demonstrations. My favorite is the cassette tapes smoothie, but the ballpoint pens demo is also an instant classic. Two weeks until my PMF examination. Not sweating just yet.

Update Madness - 12 January 2007

I have a few personal updates:

1) I received my Presidential Management Fellows exam date today. The big day is 1 February in a federal building over in Foggy Bottom.

2) I played around the color scheme (read: hit the "shuffle blog colors" button for a few minutes) so my blog has a more distinct look at is easier on the eyes.

3) If you're planning on seeing The Black Dahlia, don't bother. The acting is fine, but the plot is disjointed and the screenwriters obviously misinterperted the idea of a 'twist ending' as 'revealing all of the key plot points in the last 15 minutes of the movie.' If you're into movies with really flourid, poetic dialogue, see History Boys (if not, don't bother). See The Illusionist if you haven't already. It is conclusive proof that Edward Norton is Generation X's greatest actor. If you're thinking about a career in the CIA's Clandestine Service, go see the The Good Shepard and if you're thinking about it afterward, you're a better man than I.

Update Madness - 3 January 2007

So the Office of Personnel Management folks handling the President Management Fellows program finally did something on time for the first time in a year: I received my PMF nomination notice today via e-mail. For those not graduating from a graduate program in spring of '07, OPM delayed the start date and deadline for the PMF application by twice this fall. This has effectively pushed back the entire PMF application process by about two months. It looks like OPM is hoping to make up some of the time by replacing the entire oral assessment component that is used to determine the PMF finalist pool with a longer written assessment (read: more multiple choice questions). I don't know how to feel about this development because I have a notoriously mixed history of test taking - like the 400-point (downward) difference between my first and second crack at the SAT. Or the 790 I scored on the math portion of the GRE, even though I couldn't even crack a B in Elementary Statistics back in undergad. Hopefully this test will turn out more like the latter than the former...