Harbor Fest and Best Buy
So today marks the beginning of the yearly event known around these parts as Harbor Fest! Always a good time. I get to catch up with some of my Fraternity Brothers that I dont get see nearly often enough, the beer flows freely and there is an absolutely spectacular fireworks show. I'll be working at the Army recruiting booth during the day, trying to encourage other folks to join up and fight the good fight. At night however, I will be enjoying the nice cold beer and good company the occasion brings.
Since I most likely wont be shipping in September, as I had planned, I decided it was past time I got a job. There is a new Best Buy store opening in August, so I filled out an application and got hired there today. The pay is Garbage, but it will let me stretch out my savings untill I can either get cleared medically for 18x, or my officer package is finished and I find out if I'll be going to OCS. Either way I'm a winner. The funny thing about the Best Buy interview was that they had no idea what to make of my resume. The guy doing the interview actually asked me what Cryptology was....jeez...how do you explain that? They also flipped out over my degree. They are getting one hell of an educated employee for $8.25 an hour...part time. They brought up management training more than once, and I pretended to be interested.....I need the job. In the meantime though, I'll be selling high end home theater equipment. The store I'll be working at is a "Magnolia" store, and targets a more upscale demographic. We actually did case studies on Best Buy in school, specifically the way they cater the contents of the stores to target certain demographics. I mentioned this to the interviewer and he almost cried tears of joy that someone understood the concept. I guess most people just ask what the fuck a "magnolia" store is. I see a very large, thin, high definition telelvision thanks to a pretty sweet employee discount in my near future.
I talked to a civilian doctor about my ears and he said that sometimes the timpanic membrane doesn't move when your ears pop. He had some fancy term for the parts of your ears and explained the whole thing to me, but the proper terminology escapes me. Basically it means that if the timpanic membrane doesnt move so the MEP's doctor can see it, I'm kinda screwed, but it doesnt mean there's anything wrong with my ears...which I already knew.... Unfortunately the only note can provide is one that says something to effect of "everyone's phsyiology is different and they should take my word for it that my ears pop". I dont think that is going to carry much weight, I'm kind of under the impression that if they were going to take my word for it they would have done so during my temper tantrum at MEP's.
Another Minor annoyance is the fact that they want me to take the DLAB again. GRRRRRRR! I am already a DOD certified Linguist, in Arabic. I brought all my diplomas and transcripts from the DLI to MEP's with me, in addition to my training record that has my previous DLAB score on it. I also brought my most recent DLPT test results with me (they are almost 2 years old now). I was fortunate enough to be able to attend JLTC Ogden's refresher class in August of 04 when I was in the Navy Reserves and I scored a 2/1+, which surpasses the SF language requirements. Not to mention that the DLPT is given in Modern Standard Arabic(MSA), which isnt a spoken language (every country/region has its own dialect). I also brought my Iraqi Dialect training sertificate with me to wave around. I was also trained in Levantine (Syrian) dialect. I spent the majority of my time on active duty working with the Iraqi/Gulf dialects and I'm quite profficient in them, much more so than in MSA. I've had Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI's) in Iraqi/Gulf Dialect when I was considering the contractor route, but no documented scores for them. This is totally a minor irritation, but it ruffles my feathers all the same. If anyone has ever taken the DLAB, you'll understand. Its a test that Guages your ability to learn a foriegn language. Its not given in any real foriegn language...just some funny symbols that are representative of a foriegn language. A very weird test....destined to give me a helluva headache.
More updates as news happens...I'm pretty much in a state of Limbo untill I can figure out whats going on.
Since I most likely wont be shipping in September, as I had planned, I decided it was past time I got a job. There is a new Best Buy store opening in August, so I filled out an application and got hired there today. The pay is Garbage, but it will let me stretch out my savings untill I can either get cleared medically for 18x, or my officer package is finished and I find out if I'll be going to OCS. Either way I'm a winner. The funny thing about the Best Buy interview was that they had no idea what to make of my resume. The guy doing the interview actually asked me what Cryptology was....jeez...how do you explain that? They also flipped out over my degree. They are getting one hell of an educated employee for $8.25 an hour...part time. They brought up management training more than once, and I pretended to be interested.....I need the job. In the meantime though, I'll be selling high end home theater equipment. The store I'll be working at is a "Magnolia" store, and targets a more upscale demographic. We actually did case studies on Best Buy in school, specifically the way they cater the contents of the stores to target certain demographics. I mentioned this to the interviewer and he almost cried tears of joy that someone understood the concept. I guess most people just ask what the fuck a "magnolia" store is. I see a very large, thin, high definition telelvision thanks to a pretty sweet employee discount in my near future.
I talked to a civilian doctor about my ears and he said that sometimes the timpanic membrane doesn't move when your ears pop. He had some fancy term for the parts of your ears and explained the whole thing to me, but the proper terminology escapes me. Basically it means that if the timpanic membrane doesnt move so the MEP's doctor can see it, I'm kinda screwed, but it doesnt mean there's anything wrong with my ears...which I already knew.... Unfortunately the only note can provide is one that says something to effect of "everyone's phsyiology is different and they should take my word for it that my ears pop". I dont think that is going to carry much weight, I'm kind of under the impression that if they were going to take my word for it they would have done so during my temper tantrum at MEP's.
Another Minor annoyance is the fact that they want me to take the DLAB again. GRRRRRRR! I am already a DOD certified Linguist, in Arabic. I brought all my diplomas and transcripts from the DLI to MEP's with me, in addition to my training record that has my previous DLAB score on it. I also brought my most recent DLPT test results with me (they are almost 2 years old now). I was fortunate enough to be able to attend JLTC Ogden's refresher class in August of 04 when I was in the Navy Reserves and I scored a 2/1+, which surpasses the SF language requirements. Not to mention that the DLPT is given in Modern Standard Arabic(MSA), which isnt a spoken language (every country/region has its own dialect). I also brought my Iraqi Dialect training sertificate with me to wave around. I was also trained in Levantine (Syrian) dialect. I spent the majority of my time on active duty working with the Iraqi/Gulf dialects and I'm quite profficient in them, much more so than in MSA. I've had Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI's) in Iraqi/Gulf Dialect when I was considering the contractor route, but no documented scores for them. This is totally a minor irritation, but it ruffles my feathers all the same. If anyone has ever taken the DLAB, you'll understand. Its a test that Guages your ability to learn a foriegn language. Its not given in any real foriegn language...just some funny symbols that are representative of a foriegn language. A very weird test....destined to give me a helluva headache.
More updates as news happens...I'm pretty much in a state of Limbo untill I can figure out whats going on.
posted by ElimiNate at 8:22 PM
1 Comments:
My parents were born in the Middle East, so the three languages spoken at home have always been french, english and arabic.
Dad uses the more "grittier" and "colourful" arabic expressions...which I have picked up and found rather useful when I travelled alone throughout the Middle East :>)
Most of milbloggers stationed in Iraq that 'chat' with me regularly have asked me to each them some of those grittier expressions to insult hooded "f**kers as they call them.
and of course how could I say not - - its one of my contributions to supporting guys in the frontline:>)
It's great that you have learned the various arabic dialects - most people assume all arabs speak the same language. They don't..and while there are similarities...there are many more differences.
Your knowledge of the language and the dialects will serve you well not just during your deployment but throughout your life.
Nothing like being able to walk the streets of the M.E. and understand what the average arab on the street is saying....from that I was able to understand just how much they hate Americans.....looooong before Pres Bush came into the White House.
The reality is that they laughed at Carters fecklessness in dealing with Iran hostage incident, they had no love for Clinton who they felt was impotent in handling Bin Laden, and Saddam - albeit all the while trying to prove he wasn't sexually impotent - and democracy American style is not something they wholeheartedly embrace. Jobs, security, and freedom - not freedom of religion but socio-political freedom.
And as much as they hated America..they hated their own political leaders for - in their view- not standing up to Israel and to America.
I often got the feeling back then that the Sunnis and Shiites would put aside their differences to come together to fight against the West...and that seems to be situation today.
Sorry..I've rambled on ....Best Buy is definately getting one helluva an employee :>)
Hope you enjoyed Harbor Fest, and Im sure you will totally ace the DLAB!
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