Computer-Based Amnesia

My primary computer has been largely unavailable for use for the last FIVE weeks due to technical difficulties (or perhaps they were emotional – the motherboard had to be replaced). I’ve been using a borrowed laptop during this time, so I wasn’t completely without internet access or the ability to create files. However, I did not have access to any of my already created files, and since some of my passwords were on that computer, I therefore also didn’t have access to some of my online accounts. I also have subscribed to RSS feeds to about twenty blogs, and I couldn’t remember what all of them were, so I got way behind on my blog reading.

This motherboard relationship issue actually ended up creating some wetware memory difficulties for me, because I cannot tell you how many times I would think of something I wanted to look up, and I knew I had a file for it, but I couldn’t access it. I’ve decided to call this state of frustration and lack of memory access “computer-based amnesia”. I really had no idea how much I relied on my computer to remember stuff for me. It’s like what I have in my own head is just the directory and a brief summary of the files; my brain dumped the primary content because it didn’t have to do the work of remembering it.

At least I didn’t have any problems creating new content; I wrote the “Part I” series on my military experiences without any reference to old diary entries from that time period. I am a little hesitant, though, to pull up those diary entries now and do fact checking, because I’m pretty proud about how the series turned out, and I don’t want the facts to get in the way of my good stories.

And yes, I do have hard copies of MOST of my passwords, I don’t keep them ALL on my computer. And yes, I know external back-up drives are just common sense. Long story short – I will get it rectified eventually.

In the meantime, I hope my computer has a strong, loving, healthy relationship with its new motherboard, because I do not want to come down with another bout of computer-based amnesia!

Tags: mental health

Uncategorized | Angel | September 22, 2011 9:06 pm

16 Comments

By CatIVLing, September 24, 2011 @ 9:31 pm

Angel, may I say you’re also a great jounalist besides a linguist! I love reading all your stories. Here’s my SITREP; I just got converted to CTI2, detailer is cutting me order to Kunia(pretty sure that’s where all the linguists are at on Hawaii). I really want some inside info on the work environment, i.e. shift hours, watch duty, etc.. Thank you in advance.
By Angel, September 25, 2011 @ 5:32 pm

Hi CatIVLing,

I’d be happy to provide you that inside info, but I transferred out of Kunia in 2001, and I haven’t been in touch with anyone who works there since. There are only a few things I could tell you that might be useful, and might be completely out of date:

1) there were two watch schedules: straight days, working 0500-1300, 4 days on, 2 days off; and rotating evening/night shift: 1300-2100, 2100-0500. 4 eves, 1 day (24 hrs) off, 4 mids, 3 days (72 hrs) off. Rotating shift SUCKS – if you can, get on the straight day sked!!! Don’t be ashamed about it either; I wish I had made the switch much sooner than I did. Rotating shift schedules are the stupidest, most unproductive schedules ever. Everyone is always sleep-deprived; they might as well just require everyone to report to work drunk everyday.

2) most of the linguists who are sent to Kunia are on their first tour of duty. Have you ever worked in an environment that was mostly sailors on their first tour of duty? I can describe it in four words: standby for heavy whining. They’ll complain about everything, including Hawaii. I’d suggest you cultivate a nice circle of friends who are on their second or later tour of duty, to help keep you from going crazy, or some civilian friends, if you have the inclination and the time. Working a rotating shift sked that doesn’t correspond to a 7 day schedule makes it pretty difficult to engage in regular non-work activity, though. I really didn’t get a chance to know some locals and start appreciating Hawaii until I started working a regular weekday schedule, and that didn’t happen until well after I transferred out of Kunia. There are very few opportunities at Kunia for linguists to work regular weekday schedules.

3) If you are a Chi-ling, there’s a good possibility you could spend the rest of your career on O’ahu, if you want to. If they still have the homeport program, and you like Hawaii, you’ll definitely want to check in to it.

4) Your job as a linguist IS watchstanding, so all the other watches, I believe, are covered by other rates, or by dayworkers whose primary jobs are not watchstanding. I don’t think linguists were required to do quarterdeck watches or anything like that.

I don’t know if there are any other linguist billets besides Kunia. There were a few here and there several years ago, but those were mostly going away in the early 2000s, and I doubt they’ll come back anytime soon. I snagged a Ru-ling billet at NCPAC Hawaii for my third tour (I still can’t believe my luck!), but that was the very last one – they converted all those billets to R-branchers, I believe, or analysis positions.
By CatIVLing, September 27, 2011 @ 2:25 am

Angel, how quick you have responded! So great to have a passionate CT like yourself to share experience with.
Yes, I’m a Chi-ling. Do you transcribe everything from Audio, Video, Paper in Russian to reports? Sorry, they never sent me to Cory, Monterey or Goodfellow because they say I’m a direct convert and they don’t have the money. But I am concerned about the ancient reel to reel recording device and UNIX computer. I mean, CTs are the top rates in the Navy and they don’t even provide us the decent equipments? I should have known though. However, I will only go to Hawaii if I decide to re-enlist, so you can understand I’m clearly weighting all the options here(don’t want to get stuck on a beautiful, but miserable island for the next 4~6 years). You can email me if you want, and thanks again!
By Angel, September 27, 2011 @ 8:09 pm

CatIVLing,

While I could answer your question regarding what I transcribed, it would do you no good. My information is ten years out of date and applies to a completely different target than yours.

I can tell you, however, that the equipment was upgraded to late twentieth century technology in the mid-1990s while I was still at Kunia, so no, you won’t be using reel-to-reels. The equipment they had when I left was reasonably modern and easy to use.

While I can’t speak for the Chi-ling training at Goodfellow, based on my own experience with the Ru-ling program, you won’t be missing much if they send you straight to your duty station. It will be a little more work on their end to get you trained, but it will all be on-the-job training and therefore a much more effective use of your time. Most of the stuff I learned at Goodfellow I didn’t use at Kunia.

There’s no reason to assume that you would be miserable on Hawaii, based on what I’ve written here (I have more to write about living in Hawaii, and most of it is good). A LOT of people are crazy about it. Also, if you look Asian, you’ll blend right in and you won’t have to deal with any of the subtle prejudice against haoles (white people). If you want to do a lot of traveling around the Pacific Rim, Hawaii is a good place to base it out of. I took a trip to Australia while I was in Hawaii, and it was a much shorter flight than from the mainland, and the jet lag wasn’t nearly as bad either.

I would suggest you contact your CTI detailer, and see if he/she is willing to put you in contact with some Chi-lings at Kunia (preferably some who are on their second or third tour of duty) who would be willing to give you more details on what you can expect there.
By CatIVLing, September 27, 2011 @ 9:47 pm

Angel, I do look Asian because I’m Asian lol. And yes I know certain advantages being station at Hawaii as Chi-ling, stable for one, Pac Rim travel for another. However, I’m considering becoming a linguist outside the military too, DOD contractor for example. So, how much of a CTI’s work applies to a real world linguist? I want to prepare myself for the real world job requirement & demand. Do you know any good government contractors to work for as a Chi-Ling?
By Angel, September 28, 2011 @ 9:02 am

Okay, now you are really straying into unknown territory for me (DoD contractors). I will take a wild guess, base on the fact that I don’t even recall working with a DoD contractor, that they do very different work than military linguists. However, serving a tour as a Chi-ling might give you a significant advantage over others when applying for a DoD contractor position, since you’d have some operational experience working with the language, plus the TS/SCI clearance. Then again, Chi-lings might be in such huge demand that they’d hire you without that background.

All I can recommend is that you start Googling government contractors to find out which ones work in China or with Chinese folk, and then start making phone calls. Yeah, they’ll be cold calls, but if you are a native speaker and since you are already active duty military, those calls should get warm pretty quickly. With a little persistence you should be able to eventually get a hold of a DoD contractor Chi-ling who will probably be eager to help you out, if their company offers recruiting bonuses. China’s hot and it will stay hot for a long time (from a translator employment point of view), so you really have a lot of professional options.
By CatIVLing, September 28, 2011 @ 8:19 pm

Angel,
Yeah, that’s my plan. Google & call around until I land on a company that respond lol. Yes, I’m a native speaker. And they already granted me TS/SCI, which is pre-requisite to work in this career. So I’m just going to keep searching until contractors give me a job or else go to Hawaii. I want to have a website like you too; did you design it yourself? Which company do you use for hosting? So many things to do in life, so little time…..
Do you have Facebook? I will add you!
By Angel, September 28, 2011 @ 10:01 pm

That’s a good plan! And that’s great that they’ve already granted you the clearance, that will probably help you quite a bit. I know I said it before, but as a Chi-ling, you’ve got a lot of options. I’m a little jealous. I became a Ru-ling a few years after the Iron Curtain fell, so my experience in the Navy was one of decreasing duty station choices and drawdown. A lot of Ru-lings had to cross over to Arabic or analyst positions in order to stay in.

I picked my website design from a big batch of blank templates somewhere, modified it, and my ex-husband put it together – he’s a webmaster. I believe my blog is hosted on a local ISP, but I’m not sure – again, my ex-husband took care of that, and still does.

I do have Facebook, but I am very rarely on it, and post even less often. Your better off just subscribing to my blog. I won’t always post on military or Hawai’i stuff … I’ll pretty much just post whatever I want. The writing will always be good, though.
By CatIVLing, September 29, 2011 @ 3:56 am

Angel,
Yeah you say that a Chi-ling has lots of options, but I don’t feel like that way lol. Maybe no one has shown me enough doors yet, lol. I know Arabic is hot, and they get tax free whenever they work in the zone, all they have to do a fly into the Combat zone one day out of the month, bam got the whole month tax free. What’s your current work?
Russia’s economy is doing so good, I’d imagine they need some linguists there….
Do you know anyone from the CTI community that got out & landed a linguist job?
By Angel, September 29, 2011 @ 9:46 am

Like a lot of folks in the military, I didn’t keep up with people at my old duty station once I transferred to a new one, so I can’t say I know anyone who got out and worked as a linguist. It’s a lot easier to look for a job that requires a security clearance – those jobs are much more readily available, and I did know people who pursued those. It’s amazing how many companies require at least a few people to handle sensitive data. Again, though, my information is ten years old, so I can’t provide you with any specifics. Google would be a significant help there.

I can tell you, though, that I had a civilian NSA supervisor who was very impressed with me, and he said if I ever wanted to work there, to let him know and he’d help me out. That’s not contractor work, obviously, but it was an opportunity I wouldn’t have had without my military linguist background. I wasn’t interested in living in the DC metro area, though, which is most likely where I would have ended up. And I was sick of Russian, anyway – Russia is a depressing country. My next best bet would have been to become sort of analyst, which didn’t appeal to me either. I think I was just tired of intel work in general. I could go back and do it if I had to, but I really don’t want to.

As I mentioned earlier, however, doing at least one tour as a Chi-ling would probably give you a significant leg up in getting the kind of job you want. You’d also probably have a lot of opportunities for networking within the intelligence community while you are at Kunia to find out where the good contractor jobs are. If you don’t want to do all the cold calling right now to find places that take Chi-lings, I’d say go ahead and take that tour at Kunia – it will probably open a lot of doors for you that aren’t as accessible now.

As for my current career, right now I am rather significantly underemployed – working two part time jobs, both as a church admin assistant. I love the work though. I am looking for another part time job so I can get my hours up to full time, and I’d be happy to find similar work. I like being the power behind the throne, the person who gets things done. If you had told me when I was Little Miss Shit-Hot Linguist that I would one day like doing the work I do now, I would have told you that you were nuts. But life takes people in strange directions sometimes, and for the most part, I’ve been okay with that. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.
By CatIVLing, October 1, 2011 @ 10:03 pm

Angel,
Yes, I agree with you that finish the tour at Kunia will get me a lot of open doors; that’s why it remains as one of my option. But, if I can somehow get lucky and get hired by DoD contractors, then I think my objective will be accomplished. In your opinion, what kinda report I need to be effecient at doing as Chi-ling civilian(just guess if you have to lol)?
Yeah, lots of agencies want us CT people, as a matter of fact, NSA is a regular shore duty for some CT rates. But I don’t think working for any intel agencies would be on my top list
So you like admin works, huh? Interesting, I’d consider hiring you to be one of my secretary if I ever open up a business just because I know you’re organized and fair.
By Angel, October 2, 2011 @ 4:21 pm

CatIVLing,

I’ve always taken pride in earning my paycheck, whether I was slinging fast food, waitressing, translating, or administrating. You’d certainly get a good secretary if you were ever lucky enough to hire me.

I’m gonna take a complete wild-ass guess here and say that DoD contractor translators would probably be used for person-to-person translation while DoD personnel were working in China, or Chinese people were working in the States; the translators would probably also have to write after-action reports that reflect their feel for the culture and attitudes of the Chinese towards the Americans. They may also have to write some very complicated translations, Chinese-to-English, of technical documents, legal documents, military documents, etc. In short – some very demanding, high-level translation work. You couldn’t just be a native speaker who learned a little Chinese at home growing up (there are quite a few people running around with those skills); you’d also have to have a very high level of fluency in Chinese, equivalent to that of a college-educated Chinese professional. I’m assuming it would be Mandarin, but I know even less about the dialects than I do about the work required.
By CatIVLing, October 3, 2011 @ 1:14 am

Angel,
That’s the kind of guess I need. I will fine tune on my skill according to youre guess That’s precisely I’m concerned about; staying in will get me some technical skills(i.e. transcribe reports in real time) but will probably have little chance getting person-to-person translation or doing translation work outside the US(but as a contractor, I can) So there’s definately some gain and loss, ultimately depends on which path I will take.
My Chinese is very proficient: 3+/3+/3+ on all sectors, and with different dialects in Chinese language group. Maxed out on FLPP four years ago as a non-linguist, it felt pretty good. But now I’m hungry again for knowledge, doing the same task over & over again would not satisfy me anymore. That’s why I want a new challenge, and hopefully God will savor me because I’m more humble than I was when I joined.
By Angel, October 3, 2011 @ 12:38 pm

With those amazing DLPT scores, and in a Cat IV language, no less, I have to admit your language proficiency might be kinda wasted as a CTI, and yeah, I bet you would be bored too. I can see now why you are eager for contractor work; it would probably be much more fulfilling.

And regarding God and humility (I’ve gotta put a plug in here for my own spiritual ideas) humility is about silencing the ego, not groveling before God. The quieter the ego, the better you can hear Spirit, when you choose to listen. God wants you to live an exciting and challenging life, so you are already on the same page there. It’s just a matter of tuning in to the right frequency and staying tuned in consistently, while also somehow ignoring all the static and non-target chatter. That’s something we all need to work on, I think.
By CatIVLing, October 13, 2011 @ 3:00 am

Angel,

Thank yo so much for those encouraging words! I will keep you posted how my career turns out

I too, been to Hawaii several times. First time was in 2001, very pretty. North shore’s got some amazing high waves! Photographers & cameramen practically camp there during day time then maybe lovebirds take over at night. What’s the most exotic island you’ve been at Hawaii(somewhat livable of course)?
By Angel, October 13, 2011 @ 10:21 am

I’ve only been to O’ahu and the Big Island. I loved the Big Island – it had a sweet, expansive, rural feel to it. Most parts of it are livable.

Divine Mind

musings by Angel