I’m getting older. I can tell because today, I was contacted by the National Security Agency, and it aged me about a year.
Funny, when you answer the phone and the person on the other end says they are with the National Security Agency, you don’t need to ask which Nation. It’s obvious that it’s U.S., and if you have to ask, well, they’re the ones asking the questions, not you, son.
Seems I have a friend wants to work for the U.S. government. He says the State department, but I bet it’s something far cooler, like the counter-James Bond squad. He needs a background check in order to get security clearance, and I was his old boss. The NSA fellow asked me a few questions, and wanted to send me a questionnaire to fill out. He also wanted to sit down in person with me, but that may or may not happen.
I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be on my best behavior, no snarky, sarcastic or inane answers. At least, none that will get me sent up the river for perjury.
“The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. We lie daily, very complexly, and at great length. If not for our excessive vanity and our over-active imaginations, we would be quite difficult to deceive.”
Travis, George and I can probably give you a list of the exact questions the NSA people will ask in an interview. We've done dozens of them (and presumably had a few done about us).
Posted by naomi at 6:06 pm on Nov. 10, 2005
That would be great, thanks.
Posted by Travis Smith at 1:02 am on Nov. 11, 2005
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)