_ _ _ _ _ of the Strong Opinion

I’m going to go play in Kuwait for the rest of my tenure in the desert lands. Should be there by this time next week.

Amongst all the background noise in your life, you might have missed this nugget from Michael Yon’s blog last week:

“The war in Iraq is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won.”

If you missed the post on the blog, you can read an extended Op-Ed piece in the NY Daily News here.

I met Michael about two years ago while waiting for a Toby Keith show to begin at Camp Victory (I was there for work, not pleasure). Michael’s an excpetional cat who’s insight into the situation in Iraq comes from first hand experience. He hates being called the Ernie Pyle of our generation. However, if the shoe fits, sometimes you just gotta wear it.

From time to time, I ask some of the Local Nationals with whom I work with how things are going outside in the “Red Zone.” For the first time, in a long time, the answer was unanimous - “Much Better.” Though my polling of an Engineer, an Estimater and a Laundry Worker wasn’t exactly scientific it is no less releveant or important to the discussion at large.

The good news is, the Surge has worked. I’m hopeful the corner has finally be turned and we can start the long road to stability. 16 months might be too quick a timetable for a withdrawal but things are better than they’ve been in the 44 months I’ve been over here. We’ll see how things progress from here.

44 months down, a little less than 7 to go.

You cannot believe everything you read in the newspaper or everything you see on TV. Frankly all the business about the electrical wiring and shoddy workmanship is half truths. It’s a shame that only 1/2 the story is being told.

One day, I may tell more of it. Suffice it to say, you cannot believe everything you read. The good news in all of this is - for the first time in nearly 2 years, I have hope that this place is going to turn out all right.

Here are some images from my recent class in Key Largo. The goal of the class was to learn to use my new camera, camera housing and strobes. Much fun was had.

It’s the first birthday in four that I’ve not been in the Sandbox. VERY Happy about that.

To all who wished Birthday greetings - Thanks…

Read the story.

I can hear Mattress Mac in the back of my head. I can’t guarantee you that Gallery Furniture will save you money but if you sign up for and use the Ebates service whenever you shop online, you’ll save money.

I’m a big Ebates fan. I guess it fits the obsessive compulsive in me. Sign up for the site, click through a link to your favorite online retailer, collect your rebate quarterly. What could be simpler? OK, so it’s a little hard to remember to click through every time. I’m all about finding as much of an edge as I can find. A penny saved is a penny earned. Blah, Blah, Blah!!!

If you sign up for the service and use it before 30 Jun, I’ll get $10.00 and you’ll get $10.00 + the savings.

As the Patriarch says, “If it’s free, it’s for me…”

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to review your background and qualifications for the position in Dubai.  Your credentials, as well as those of other candidates, have been carefully reviewed. While your experience demonstrates credible accomplishments, we have identified another candidate whose experience and qualifications more closely match our current requirements.  Your interest in the position is appreciated and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Gotta love the Dear John Heisman letters HR sends out. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. I’d not have hired me based on my interview. I became that guy - the guy I make fun of after sitting on an interview panel. Oh well, enough bitching and moaning.

People always ask me what life’s like out here in the desert. I tell them, that it’s not quite as bad as what they see on TV. For the most part, that is true. That’s not to say there aren’t some crazy happenings from time to time. In fact, the last two weeks have been way too much like my first two years out here. Though things have quieted down tremendously, it’s probably going to be a long hot summer.

If you want to read the stories you’re not likely to see or hear eleshwere, I suggest picking up a copy of Moment of Truth, Michael Yon’s first hand account of what it’s like to be out here. He doesn’t like the comparison but he’ s definitely the Ernie Pyle of this generation. Michael has a keen eye and he’s not afraid to call a spade a spade. Most of the reports you read on the Internet or see on TV are compendiums of bits and pieces of stories compiled by flunkies sitting behind a news desk thousands of miles away from the action. Mike’s account is as first hand as it gets.

That’s how I feel after my interview. I fumbled through the middle few questions and was way too chatty most of the rest of the interview. I didn’t really recover until about question 11. Too bad for me there were only 12 questions. I’d be really surprised if I got the job - I probably wouldn’t hire me based on my performance in the interview. Then again, stranger things have happened over here.

Notes to self: 1. think through better answers to the obvious questions ahead of time. 2. Write questions down as they are being asked. 3. Pause for a moment to formulate a response before opening the pie hole.

Funny, this whole experience reminds me of Sean, a friend from my Dallas days. He would measure his words, sometimes at great (read “painful) length), before responding to the simplest of queries. Maybe that’s why he answered just about everything as if he were an expert on the topic. My mouth needs to slow down and give the brain a chance to formulate cogent and succinct responses. Why, oh why, do I just barf out a bunch of words?

Results should be out in the next few days. I’m not hopeful that I’ll actually end up with this position. However, all isn’t lost, I’ve got a few new questions to pose to potential interviewees the next time I sit on an interview panel. Unfortunately, I’ll probably be asking them to potential employees in Iraq and not in Dubai…

Tomorrow, at 10:00 local time, I interview for a position with my current employer in Dubai. It would be nice to be out of this particular desert the first week of May.