RECCE ROOM

This is part 2 of a 2-part post .   Recently, I applied for a position with a company, and was made an offer. As part of the offer, they hired a 3rd party to perform a background check. Nothing out of the ordinary. If you want to read about "out of the ordinary" hiring practices, here is a good link . The company performing the background check called me a week later, and told me that the University I attended verified different dates than I had indicated.  My actual dates at that institution were August 1993 to May 1998. That's what I had indicated. However, the company performing the background check was told August 1995 to May 1998. They now said it was my responsibility to prove my claim! My options were a diploma or transcripts.  I never had received my diploma, and my transcripts were long since misplaced. A quick search online and I was able to purchase a copy of each. I sent the .pdf file of my transcripts to the employment verification company, and that was suff...

This is part 1 of a 2-part post. When I was in college, I still lived at home. This brought about some interesting situations. Particularly with a mom who was a major-league shit-tester . One of those things is that my mother was incessant about seeing our report cards.  One might point out that for a minor child, the parent has a right to see the report card. This is true, and is enshrined in the FERPA act passed in 1974. However, When a student turns 18 years old or enters a postsecondary institution at any age, all rights afforded to a parent under FERPA transfer to the student, with only a handful of possible "workarounds."  When mail would come at the end of the semester, it was often a race to the mailbox to get the report card. I won more often than not. But not always. Some days, one simply cannot be there because of other commitments.  Yes, she would open mail addressed to me.  She did the same with my siblings. 

Humor Week, fourth entry: This individual claimed she had 4 tickets to one of my classes that she wouldn't be able to attend. There was just a small problem: tickets had not yet been released for that class. I reported her, blocked her from the page, and informed the authorities. 

 Humor week - third entry.  Still not sure what this person was smoking. Here is the photo he was commenting on: 

Humor Week, second entry.  Yes, Savage replies are part of a winning business strategy. 

 As a firearms instructor, one deals with the public. As anyone who deals with the public will tell you, it can be "interesting." This week, this blog will entertain you with 5 actual tales of dealing with people in the gun community.  For the first installment, let us do some preliminary setup. Here are the four stages of learning:  1. Unconscious Incompetence — You don’t know what you don’t know and live within unconscious incompetence. 2. Conscious Incompetence — You become aware of what you don’t know and live in conscious incompetence. 3. Conscious Competence — You know and you consciously make the corrections and, therefore, live in conscious competence. 4. Unconscious Competence — This is essentially mastery. You’re not conscious but you’re doing the proper things. It is integrated into who you are and you have become unconsciously competent to the point where you become the thing. Many funny stories spring forth from the first stage: they just don't know what they...