I have prevailed in my battle with Blue Cross for reimbursement of a claim for my comprehensive physical at Soonchunhwang hospital last April. They paid $1288. on a bill of $1378., which is admittedly pretty sweet. But they didn’t make it easy.
On the other hand, I have to pay the insurance on my stateside house, which coincidentally is $1300. So, I guess the universe (or at least my bank account) is in balance.
I had to chuckle over a cc: email I received regarding my security clearance application. It basically said “this guy held a higher level clearance than you are asking for now, so we don’t need to do another background investigation”. Which is what I’ve been saying all along. Anyway, I now have the clearance required for me to be permitted to utilize the DoD computer network.
So, I spent the better part of my non-work day today at the Yongsan office of my employer trying to get my access to said computer network squared away. I have to submit a form with my electronic signature to request access, which of course means I have to do it online. And while I have succeeded in getting my electronic signature to work, I can’t submit the required form because I can’t access the computer network. Someone should write a book about military Catch-22’s. Oh wait, they did.
Anyway, I think the problem is that I’m still in the system under my former life as a civilian employee. I now need to be re-designated as a contractor, but my efforts to accomplish that online were fruitless “that SSN is already being utilized by an account holder” was all I could get from AKO (Army Knowledge Online). Which means I’m going to have to speak with a human being on the help desk back in the states. Which I guess will mean staying up late one of these nights.
Well, I did manage to take the required training that is a prerequisite for being granted access to the network. It took over an hour and was pretty much common sense. I really liked the section on identifying “internal security threats”. It was a little interactive game where you had to note the classic characteristics of Edward Snowden someone who wants to steal and misuse government secrets. I caught all of those deceptive bastards!
I passed the final exam and will upload the results. Once I’m granted access to the network. Which can’t happen until I’ve uploaded the results.
And the circle remains unbroken.
I imagine that the first major case of bureaucratic circular logic in a typical American’s life comes right about the end of college: to get a decent job, you need experience; to get experience, you need a decent job.
Congrats on the $1378; too bad most of that gets dumped into the $1300 hole. But hey—$78 is good for two trips to Bennigan’s (without alcohol).
Actually, twelve bucks in the hole. Not big on Bennigan’s anyway though. Yeah, the Wiki link had some pretty interesting examples of just how common catch-22 situations seem to be in life. But that need experience/get experience conundrum is a great example.