[Rhodes22-list] MRI Interview Trip

[brad haslett]

Roger,

Best of luck.  We've been very unsuccesful at getting
student visa's lately for kids of Fan's friends.  The
Homeland Security Department is about as efficient as
the TSA at the airport.  Patience is a difficult
virtue to muster when you're dealing with the gubment.

The Plaza area is indeed nice.  In 1984 I was flying a
small jet for a Coca-Cola bottler.  My first week on
the job was the week they changed the taste of Coke. 
My boss was Chairman of the Bottlers Association and
we burned the paint off the jet attending meetings
around the country.  He put me up in the Plaza area
and I had a really good time.  About ten years ago
when I was on the 727 I was doing airport standby one
night in Indy.  We were launched to Kansas City to
recover freight from a broken bird.  When we got there
another crew took our bird and we got stuck
baby-sitting the broken one.  No one had bothered to
make hotel accomadations so we were on our own.  The
mechanic said we would be there a few days so pick
somewhere nice.  As it turns out, a convention was in
town and the only rooms available was penthouse suites
downtown.  Damn the bad luck.  I told my crew I'd been
here before and we needed to go eat in the Plaza
district.  It was a while ago but I think there may
have been some alcohol involved.  It was very late
when we returned and there were no cabs.  I spotted a
car with a light on the top and jumped out in the
street to flag it down.  A very stout looking female
cop got out of the car and said "what the hell are you
doing in the middle of the street?"  "Oh sorry
officer, I thought you were a cab"  She asked where we
were going and barked, "get your ass back on the
sidewalk".  "Sure thing Mam, do you think you could
give us a ride back to our hotel?"  "Don't press your
luck buddy"  "Yes, Mam!"  I haven't flagged down a cab
long distance ever since.

Brad
--- Roger Pihlaja <cen09402 at centurytel.net> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
> 
> The Midwest Research Institute (MRI) is a class act.
>  They sent a limo to pick me up at the Kansas City
> International Airport.  They put me up at the Kansas
> City Marriott Hotel, which is right downtown in the
> "Plaza Area".  The holiday decorations in the Plaza
> were amazing and the view from my 12th floor hotel
> window was pretty impressive!
> 
> The interview day itself was nonstop, back-to-back
> interviews from 8:00 AM until the limo picked me up
> to take me back to the airport at 1:45 PM.  Lunch
> was catered in and the interviews continued thru
> lunch.  On the tour of the MRI facility, I never saw
> so many Biological Safety Level 2 (BSL-2) and BSL-3
> labs in one place in my life.  These folks are
> having way too much fun!  
> 
> The position I was interviewing for was called
> Aerosol Engineering Section Manager.  I was
> interviewed by the person that would be my boss, his
> boss, and several of the people that would be on my
> staff.  It's a high security environment.  As a
> visitor, one does not go wandering off by themself. 
> I even had to be escorted to and from the restroom! 
> The fact that I don't currently hold a security
> clearance may be an issue.  Apparently, it requires
> up to a year to process a security clearance
> application these days and the fact that I held a
> DoD security clearance level at the level of SECRET
> from 1987-1990 does not speed up the process.
> 
> Other than that, I thought the interviews went well.
>  It is my understanding that MRI still has a few
> other candidates to interview and these interviews
> will take place early in January, 2005.  Hopefully,
> by mid to late January, 2005, I will know whether I
> have a job offer or not.
> 
> Also on a bright note, I have another job interview
> lined up on 01/04/2005.  This one is with Broin &
> Associates, Inc.  Broin makes turn key package
> corn-to-ethanol plants.  I've been marketing my
> process waste energy recycling concept from the
> entrepreneurship class at SVSU to companies like
> Broin.  It took a while to get thru to the right
> person; but, apparently my proposal finally crossed
> the appropriate desk!
> 
> I haven't felt this hopeful in quite a while!  We're
> going to be traveling for the holidays from
> Christmas Day thru to the evening of 11/30/2004.  I
> hope you all have a very merry Christmas and happy
> New Year!  I'll talk to you when we get back.
> 
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium  
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> 



		
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