The Beginning

It has begun.

The ostensible reason for this blog to exist is so that I may communicate more easily when I’m in Latvia. So, I figured I may as well cover the preparations and run up to the trip itself. …This also lets me get the blog up and running before I’m in Latvia with heaven only knows what kind of internet connectivity. Anyhow…

I have my interim clearance. *and there was much rejoicing* This means, for those who don’t know, that, unless they find something terrible in my background, I get to go for good and sure.

So, in an effort to get ready for my impending trip, I had the grand pleasure of getting my immunizations today. Hepatitis A/B… Tetanus-Diptheria… Polio… Not the most fun thing I’ve done in my life… but not the worst, by any stretch. Actually, getting whacked with a saber – by certain people in particular *ahemBEN* – is quite a bit worse :).

Relaxing after having done my duty for the day, it gives me pleasure, as a good SI major, to think of my immune system in terms of intelligence… The thoughts of my brain run thusly:


There Bob, the white blood cell, sits at his cubicle desk. It’s quiet in the office – almost boringly quiet – but that’s the way Bob likes it. Quiet means he’s doing his job properly and The Body is safe. Granted, there had recently been reports of suspicious activity in the Nose region… but even though that wasn’t Bob’s area of expertise, he thought the Indicators and Warnings office had gone a bit too far with their assessment. Sighing, he turned back to his report: How Interagency Cooperation and Tight Border Security Helped Us Prevent a Flu Attack for the Sixth Consecutive Year. At least it was less boring than sitting at his desk doing nothing.

Suddenly, Bob’s peace was interrupted: One of the intel collectors ran in the door, out of breath and waving some papers. He managed to gasp out, “It’s wild, I’ve never seen anything like them!” as he thrust the papers at Bob. As the collector caught his breath, an explanation came tumbling out of him. “They all just came in. One came in from the folks in Left Arm, but a full four of the others came from the group of us in Right.”

Bob scanned each document… he’d never seen anything like this. Five new threats in the course of five minutes?! He scrambled. He called in every office and analyst he could get a hold of. It would take working around the clock to assess these threats and create countermeasures. The Body would have to go into serious lockdown… It remained to be seen, but some nonessential functions might have to be cut. Bob, however, was optimistic: at least the threat, though new, seemed to be contained. With some hard work, any serious repercussions could be avoided. And hey, at least his day wouldn’t be boring.

Little did Bob know that this was all a training exercise, planned by the foresightful Mind…


Hm. *looks suspiciously at self* I’m blogging… I’m writing about the day of a white blood cell… The papers the guy at the clinic gave me told me to be on the lookout for “unusual behavior” as a sign of a bad reaction to my vaccinations. Maybe I oughta go back and get myself checked…….