An Announcement of Status Quo

Though I haven’t been mentioning it here, through all this past year I’ve been dancing the long, slow dance of Getting a Government Job Requiring Security Clearance. I applied in May of _last_ year, got interviewed in July, was offered the job in September (pending a background check), and passed that check, at long last, late _this_ summer. Last week, I finally got the call that they were ready for me to start.

For most of that time (since December, anyway), I’ve been filling my time with Ella-care as an at-home dad. And, after a weekend of rather intense discussion and option-weighing, Suanna and I have decided that that’s the state of affairs we want to keep. So I’m not going to take the job, but will instead embrace full-time parenthood for the next few years.

I was all set to explain here that I wasn’t going to be blogging about politics as much, but would instead embrace the (rather prudent) tendency of intelligence professionals to be cagey and mysterious about their political opinions. And I was all set to explain how I wouldn’t be posting as often. But now there’s no need — it’ll continue to be business as usual here at Polytropos.

I never did find out whether the people who ran my background check discovered this blog or not. Not that it would have been at all difficult to find, but Googling someone seems like just the sort of common-sense step that a government-related program wouldn’t have got around to implementing yet. I’ve often been asked by friends whether I thought being critical of Bush on the blog would hurt my chances of getting security clearance. The answer is that it certainly _shouldn’t_, by the rules, though I do know that one friend of mine who they interviewed was asked whether I supported the policies of the current Administration — a question they’re not supposed to ask. Obviously in my case, it didn’t make a difference — or they never found the blog. Pick whichever explanation fits your existing preconceptions about our government.

I do have one highly amusing background check anecdote, which I’ll save for later.

In addition to changing lots of diapers, visiting the zoo way too often, and blogging, I’d like to spend _some_ of my time in the next couple years making money, if possible. Freelance editing is in my bag of tricks, so if anybody has any leads or needs in that department, let me know.