Comprehensive Index and Blog Mission

My primary intention for constructing this blog was to provide a single point of reference for anyone interested in joining the Foreign Service, and secondarily to provide them with the proper frame of mind and ample links to enable them to prepare adequately for the FSWE and the subsequent FSOA. There is a wealth of information online, but the vast majority of it is redundant, and lacks cohesion. The single best sources for the FSWE and the FSOA are the FSWE Yahoo Group and the FSOA Yahoo Group, respectively. But despite the incredible amount of information archived within these two groups, much of it is noncontiguous and cumbersome to search for, which encourages new members to frequently ask the same questions again and again. Likewise, there are a good deal of Foreign Service related blogs online, but most of them begin at or after the A-100. The remainder are mostly personal diaries that simply mention the FSWE or FSOA in passing.

Thus out of a myriad of questions and great confusion, this quiet little blog was born, with the noble ambition of helping others traverse the road that I, in the turbulent wake of many far greater than I will ever be, now travel.

The distinct downside to blogging, however, is the lack of continuity and indexing. Since I began this blog in February of this year (2005), I have only posted about twenty-five posts, so it is not a large blog, but already it's usefulness is limited. To find any information, one previously must search through the archives month by month, and guess at the subject by my cryptic titles.

So to make the information contained within these four walls more accessible and useful, I have created a single, constantly updateable post index that will track each and every post according to its topic, yet retaining their chronological order so that one may jump directly to the specific information they are looking for, and still follow my 'path', as it were, if they be so inclined. The sidebar menu has also been edited to include a link to this Site Index, for quick reference.

Feel free to comment here - I do not purport to have mystical knowledge of the process, and acknowledge that I am responsable for any erroneous information that may find its way onto a post. Neither do I claim to have travelled the four corners of the web, and I greatly appreciate any additional insight, links or suggestions that anyone may care to proffer. If you wish to contact me directly, you may do so [currently] through the FSWE Group or by emailing me directly at my disposable email address (it will be forwarded to me after being sorted/cleaned), but you will have to edit the address a bit before sending. If you are savvy enough to have found my little piece of earth, you should already be familiar with this little procedure.

If you are a new reader, thank you for taking the time to peruse this; should you be a frequent reader, I hope this makes it more useful, and if you are a friend, you know I couldn't travel this path without you! :)

Editfish