071210 - I thought about it later.

Have you ever noticed how many comedians start their routine with the line "Have you ever noticed?"



I had another job interview today. Have you ever noticed how you can think of what you should have said after the perfect moment has long gone.



In 1990, I was being interviewed to become an army helicopter pilot and the selection board asked me, as if I was only six years old, "what is the tail rotor for?" I was dumbfounded by the fact that I was being asked such a stupid easy question. Clearly, I had not impressed these people and it was obvious that I was not going to fly an army blackhawk. That question marked the moment in time when I decided that my army career had ended. "The tail rotor counteracts the rotational forces of the main rotor" was the standard issue reply. Later, much later, I realised that I could have provided a more substantial answer - like "the seven degree upward cant of the rotor also provides eighteen percent of the total lift during the transition from zero airspeed to eighty knots" - an answer that demonstrated my knowledge and interest.


Today's dumbfounding question was "Tell me what you know about Marriott Hotels." The minimal research that I had done was to look a few websites and see what was in the news lately. I did remember that there are about 2800 Marriott Hotels in the world and that 50 of those will be built in the Asia area of the next 5 years.


Another question was about how I came to be friends with the vice president of Marriott Hotels. My immediate answer was that I met him at church, but there is more to it than that. I also know him because our kids are in the same cub-scout troop and we both share an interest in BMW motorbikes. The emphasis on the church association might make me seem like a charity case. I should have made more mention of the scouts and that I am the scout leader of the troop. The Branch President here told me on Sunday that even though it has been said that "it's not what you know, it's who you know", - who you know has to know what you know before who you know will tell who they know about what you know - you know? I have a second interview over the phone with the head of construction in Asia in the next few days.



The building had the most amazing elevators - At the lift lobby instead of pushing a button to go "up", there was a keypad to enter the floor number and then a display to tell you where to catch the next lift. Once inside, there were no buttons - because you had already told the lift where to go. This might explain this bizzare Chinese ashtray that I saw at the border between China and Hong Kong. It might be a combination of the fact that I am not a smoker and that I am in a foreign country where there are many new ideas and strange customs, but this is clearly and an ashtray that is so technologically advanced that I have no idea how it works.



In the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent finally settles on an alien planet and finds out that some his ordinary skills needed for everyday living on planet earth are well regarded and valuable and he makes a comfortable living for himself by making sandwiches. Tomorrow I go for an interview at a primary school where I will speak English to those who can not.