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Wow, this is an addictive game: Desktop Tower Defense

I have abandoned my NaNoWriMo novel after only writing 4,717 words. I decided to abandon it when I was able to sit down a couple of days ago with that word count and realized that by then I needed about 35,000 words. I knew that it was going to be impossible to finish even close to it, especially when I had other things – especially preparing for my LCP term and recruitment – that I could be worrying about. So my crappy first few thousand words will lie fallow for some time. I do not anticipate being able to write like that again until after I graduate in May 2009.

In the meantime, life finds new beauty in many ways. One of them is found through Beirut, and especially the videos and magickal sonic art at this website for the new album. Conquer the non-artisans, Zach Condon, and create a world of unrealistically good culture generators.

I have purchased harmonicas to learn how to play them, which would make them the first non-gigantic portable instrument I have ever played. Wish me luck on being able to finish at least that much. Feed a foreigner this Thanksgiving.

I am up to 2,567 words, which is less than two days’ worth of what I should be writing. It is now November 9, and that means that were I writing the average 1/30 split of the entire month’s work I should have written over 15,000 words by now. Damn. I just haven’t been able to focus like I’ve wanted to, life errands and such have come up as well as work. But I will not give up. I’m starting to get my feel for it and I can make it. But now I must hit that sack.

Yesterday I finished the book My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, and with that last shutting of the paperback I finished the trilogy of the books that I call the most influential I have ever read.

With some books or series or movies or anything of the sort – say Harry Potter – the reader will reluctantly put the book down for the last time, after having read the entire available exploits of the family of characters and situations located therein, and think with nostalgia about the excitement they had knowing that there were pages left to turn and new roads to discover in that particular contained fantasy world. There was something like that with putting Quinn’s third adventure of the mind and spirit on the table, but it was not quite the same selfish yearning to melt away into a simulacrum of escape. Instead I thought of how deeply the concepts therein had affected my character and my views about humanity, society, and my place in the global system. The answers themselves are not in Ishmael, The Story of B, or My Ishmael, but the way to find answers is, and that is what makes the books so unique and powerful, applicable to anyone who chances upon them with the nagging thought that we are all dead or dying, or at least that you are. I am thankful to my 12th grade government teacher for making Ishmael a part of of our required reading for the class, because I’d have almost never heard of it otherwise.

There are those moments that are so full of everything – senses, emotion, and experience – that they become ingrained in your head as a part of your personal golden legendarium. One of those moments for me was while reading Ishmael as a senior in high school. My family was in Birmingham, visiting my grandparents and mother’s relatives for some holiday function, probably Thanksgiving. I had been reading the book on the car ride from Gadsden, and all I could think about in my grandfather’s house was the continuing of the book, arriving at more real answers for myself. On the car ride home, I got to read the climax of the book, which was in itself a revelation to me. To many, that revelation is nothing new, but maybe they aren’t understanding it fully well.

Whilst sitting on the couch and thinking about this state of affairs, I reminded myself that I am participating in National Novel Writing Month 2007. A new spark and a new road open before me. Writing 50,000 words in one month is going to be damn hard, especially between building up my Executive Board team for 2008 and working at bars, but it’s one of those things that I should do before I leave this plane. Now I just need to get fired up for plot and character development.

Last night was my first night working at the Fox. I was stuck making hot dogs for most of the time, but I was thrown in the mix a little bit. As it was my first night, I made no tips, but tonight that will all change. In fact, I’m probably making a mistake writing this right now because I may not make it to get some dinner in time before work starts.

After work was done right before midnight, I was in a conversation with one of my co-workers, and we agreed to go up to his favorite bar, the nearby Jocks & Jills, and it was there that we were involved in a two-and-a-half hour life conversation in which he dispensed his sage wisdom and I was the padawan. I wish I could remember it all verbatim, because he is a remarkably intelligent Englishman with a penchant for street-wise speech, but I remember the main points. Most of all, I gravitated towards his absolute love for the bartending life – “slingers” being the demonym of those who are the greatest. I still intend to return to Georgia Tech and get my degree, but what inspired me was precisely what Georgia Tech itself lacks – the passion of artisanship and a bigger place in the world that he so clearly exhibited, and demonstrated in his interactions with the Jocks & Jills bartender, whom he described as “like family.” They’re all like family, he says, and that’s the best part of it.

When I dropped him off at his place at about 2:30 AM, he looked at me and said,

“You’re 21 years old, and you’ve got a golden coin in your hand, mate. Use it wisely.“

On Tuesday I went to the Fabulous Fox Theatre for an interview and I got the job right then and there. Today I went for orientation, and I shadow bartend on Saturday night, with my first working night being Sunday.

I have gotten back into the AIESEC mindset (where appropriate), and have begun having meetings with the current Executive Board members. I had a meeting with the VP External Relations, Katie, this morning at the fresh hour of 08:30 at Bobbi & June’s Kountry Kitchen. It was one I had looked forward to especially – not only because I love Bobby and June’s, but also because I foresee ER as being a very big focus for us next year. There is a lot of growth potential there, and I’m passionate about getting as many students in a functional capacity as possible. I for one will be increasing my ER skills to the max in 2008. She also revealed that in the Georgia Tech Library Archives there exist many documents from AIESEC GT all the way back to Year 1: 1987. I plan on donning a tweed coat, a Stetson, and going deep into the vault to record that ancient and forgotten information. It will help us to put together a comprehensive history and statistical picture of things like exchange and membership at AIESEC GT, and it will also be very useful for our 20th anniversary banquet this December, when we will have many distinguished guests and alumni, including the LCP who started it all and hopefully even our current MCP Missy, who was LCP of GT in 2003.

Tomorrow I meet with Maddie, my formidable opponent in the LCP race and also the current VP Out-Going Exchange. That is the other major area I wish to focus on next year. I’d like to see at least 50% of the people we recruit next year go on an AIESEC exchange within one year of joining AIESEC. I also meet with Johanna, VP In-Coming Exchange, which is a role that is in jeapordy because of national developments. It will be a difficult but worthy challenge to realign its relevance.

Real work begins next week. My life reenters a schedule.

Today was a good day.

I got a memory-foam bed topper yesterday, and though I awoke at 9:00 this morning, I didn’t get out of bed until 10:30 it was so comfortable.

I went to campus, dropped off my two photos for the study abroad photo contest, and ate.

Then I went to the Georgia World Congress Center and registered to work events there care of Food Team, Inc. I also received a 15%-off coupon for Safe-T-Sole shoes from Payless, required for the job.

I drove from there to the newly-opened City Life Restaurant & Lounge, located well within the hood, but that’s how I like it. The woman who opened it is getting her clientele from gentrifying East Point – I’m not down with gentrification, but I am down with aiding in their wealth redistribution to me. She liked me a lot so I’m pretty sure I’ve got that job down pat.

From there I went a ways up Buford Highway to get the shoes, returned home and ate some bread with pumpkin butter on it (the bombtrack), and had a nice long conversation with Gabiza, President of AIESEC International.

Then I won the election for Local Committee President of AIESEC at Georgia Tech for the 2008 term. We celebrated at Little Szechuan.

Due to a new wiki launched by New Zealand police, members of the public can now contribute to the drafting of the new policing act.

NZ Police Superintendent Hamish McCardle, the officer in charge of developing the new act, said the initiative had already been described as a “new frontier of democracy”.

“People are calling it ‘extreme democracy’ and perhaps it is,” he said.

“It’s a novel move but when it comes to the principles that go into policing, the person on the street has a good idea … as they are a customer,” he said.

“They’ve got the best idea about how they want to be policed.”

That’s awesome.

You know the feeling, relating once again to Maslow’s Hierarchy, when you are so hungry you can’t possibly think or progress on any task. That’s how hungry I am now, waiting for 7:30 to arrive so I can discuss my LCP application with Charlie over Willy’s. It was to be Mellow Mushroom, but then he has a call later – related to LCP work. I hope it won’t shanghai my little pleasures if I’m elected.

I have applied to about eight jobs now, and spoken face-to-face with two of the employers. The one the PBS (Professional Bartending School) placement woman wants me to get has responded positively, which also makes me feel nice on the inside. Plus, I’ve found a place to live for the fall unusually rapidly. Things haven’t gone this well for P. Rhea in a long, long time.

Perhaps it’s because I’m no longer a GT student! After paying my fee to get access to the Campus Recreation Center, I withdrew from the work abroad class and then submitted my application for readmission. I’m part of the wider world for the fall now.

In other news, Burma is raging against the machine, but the fascists are cracking down again. BBC has blogged accounts here and lists a blogger named Ko-Htike who is gathering information from inside Burma and posting it in London. I hope they topple the fascists – it would be a nice bright spot in an otherwise darkening worldwide sky.

I am unhappy that I did not manage to sit myself down and write about the entirety of my IC experience, but I will sum it up thusly: It was the hardest working month of my life, and I learned more from it than I have learned from any other experience. The teambuilding among the CC was terrible and we were all exhausted and kind of angry by the end of the conference, but I guess that’s part of it – the delegates had a great time. I had some great learning experiences and I met some people I would never have gotten to meet without the power of the network. With all that under my belt, I was damn glad to be home by the time home came – also after a lot of wrangling around with finding a plane ticket home that did not cost $3,000.

The Izmir possibility fell through, and just before the conference started I was surprised with an offer from a Panamaian company through my university’s work abroad program. They basically told me that I had a position to work for the fall, they just needed to finalize payment issues and send me a letter of acceptance on Wednesday, August 29, to begin work in Panama City on Monday, September 10. Therefore I purchased plane tickets to return home on September 1.

When the letter did not come, I called GT Work Abroad, through whom went all contact, on the morning of Tuesday September 4 – still without a plane ticket to Panama and with an appointment to the travel doctor for shots in Birmingham the next day. I asked where my acceptance letter was, and they responded that that very morning the company had sent a letter to the work abroad office, stating that the higher-ups had determined there was no money for an intern for only three months – even if they didn’t pay me. So like that, I was out of a sweet internship, and since it was so late in the game I was also out of a chance to sign up for classes for the fall. I saw my Fall slide down the drain.

I sent out pleas and feelers to people in my network to get me something that was at least fourteen weeks in an electrical-computer engineering field for the fall, but I knew it was basically hopeless – and so it was. If I did not get something that started by September 17, it was going to be a no-go – and so it was. Even though I had one job in Spain offered to me, it was for at least a year minimum, and I need to start school back in January, so I had to regrettably turn it down.

For two weeks I was kind of a loser – I watched the entirety of the show Arrested Development on DVD (I recommend it) and visited friends in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa a few times. I applied to a few jobs for construction, especially with electrical backgrounds, but nothing was coming up. So I decided after advice from a person on my EB last year and talking to some others, that I would attend bartending school and be a bartender for the fall. I made that decision more or less on Saturday evening, September 15. The next evening I was off to Atlanta to attend the Professional Bartending School. At 8 AM sharp for the next five days I was at that school, behind a bar, for 40 hours. I passed my written exam and practical speed test with flying colors, and I am now the proud holder of a Certificate of Mixology. The job and apartment search begin tomorrow morning.

I am currently having to couch-surf, but this is not terribly desirable due to the low stability and the annoyance it brings upon those with whom I stay. I want to get a place to live as soon as possible, hopefully for the next two years – I just found out on Saturday that my time in Turkey was approved to complete my International Plan abroad time, which means I’m locked into Atlanta to graduate hopefully by Spring 2009.

I intended to wax more reflective in this post, but the energy is seeping from my body. The unusually comfortable futon, with my own pillow, will restore my vigour for the beginning of the rest of my life.