Crack Open the Wine!

So the last two people from my OA study session found out they have FINALLY made it on to the register! It only took 6+ months. They are both Public Diplomacy cone, so they are joining an already too long register. Luckily, one has a good chance of getting the call for October. The other needs to brush up his Arabic for the extra points. I am so happy for our group. Everyone passed, and now everyone is on the register. Congratulations, guys!

Sorry, ITMTGP, I know the last thing you want to hear is more PD people getting on the register. I hate this process, too.

UPDATE: Gah! My fellow study-buddy who I thought for sure would get an offer for October missed out by a hair on getting an offer. He's 20 or so out of 174 on the PD register. Who knows were he'll be by the next class. I hate this process.

Register Update

Sorry I've not been updating very frequently. My work has gotten busy again, and staring at the register is not something that lends itself to interesting blog posts (sad, stressed, obsessive posts, but not really interesting ones). The econ register is finally starting to grow like all the other registers. I think, to some degree, that's a result of how backed up the Pol and PD registers are - I'm guessing people are now picking Econ because they see a better chance of getting hired off the register.

I'm currently 40 out of 109 (I think) according to Ms. Walton at State. Hopefully I'll cruise back down into the low thirties after the offers for October go out. I was planning on taking the Japanese test to boost my score, but I've sadly had to discontinue my Japanese lessons due to financial issues for the foreseeable future. I need to find some natives willing to do some free language exchange.

Anyhow, once I get my sealegs over the next couple of weeks I hope to post some more. For any readers, feel free to post any comments, questions, whatever, and I'll do my best to get back to you.

What Does 18,000 Lbs Look Like?

So I've been impressed by all the hard work going on at the B Files to pare down on the clutter at her home in preparation for the call to A-100. Which got me to thinking. FSO's are allowed 18,000 lbs of "stuff" for storage. My understanding (and I could be completely wrong), is that of that 18,000 lbs, an actual 7200 lbs of stuff can follow you around the world from post to post. So what does 18,000 lbs of furniture, bedding, electronic equipment, clothes, papers, books, tchotchkes, and any other miscellaneous crap look like? What about 7200 lbs of stuff?

So does anyone out there have any thoughts, or know of any links that can give you a general idea?