this week i`m connecting with my inner child. with me i don`t generally have to go far. i think one of the reasons i`ve never had a job in what qualifies as a `normal` profession is that i`m a little too in touch with my inner child. apparently a lot of employers tend to frown on the concept of a frolicking, practical joking adult in a professional environment.
however today and Friday, i get to indulge my inner child without reproach. this afternoon, i get to see sneak peek of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then Friday night, Vic, the boychick and myself are going to a local bookstore for the midnight distribution of the next Harry Potter book. we`ve had our vouchers for the last two weeks and last night we started re-reading the last book in preparation.
i`m looking forward to both these events with a barely supressed glee. i trying my best not to bounce off the cubicle walls. long time readers know of my love Roald Dahl and it was interesting to find out that Dahl hated children and the first version of the movie that he believed was too `happy`. all Dahl`s tales have a sting to them and his children`s tales were no different, i think that`s why i`ve always loved them.
J.K. Rowling wasn`t the first author to not pander to children that read, neither was Dahl, but both of them understood that children have the same range of emotion that adults do and not every story has to be shiny and happy all the way through.
i`m trying to keep my rage and my cynicism in check at the same time. vic pointed out to me this morning we have more friends in London than we do in Nashville and thankfully all of them have reported in or i have gotten word from mutual friends that they`re ok. there is an advantage to knowing some artist types, they don`t generally get out of bed before noon.
London is our town. ideally, if money were no object and we could move tomorrow we would, we love London and to see it shellshocked and torn apart is incredibly distressing. i`ve been in all the stations that were attacked, i`ve been in the tube sitting for minutes wondering why the trains aren`t moving and i empathise and sympathise with those with friends and families still unaccounted for or lost. i`m upset that this has happened to my `adopted` city but my major question is not so much the `why` but the `how`.
has the security gotten so lax in the four years since i was last in London?
vic and i have been listening to Neil Gaiman`s American Gods for about a week now. i had heard more of it before i convinced her to listen and now we`re listening to the last six hours of the unabridged version that i downloaded during a free audible trial.
i`d read the book before, but listening to it, is lending some more nuance to the tale. it`s also got me thinking, especially in light of the political and religious climate here, in this country and in this town. in the store there is a standing joke among those of us that work on a Sunday; find the Lord, lose all good sense and manners.
the worst behaved people that we have in the store are always on Sundays. it`s amazing how badly all these people in their Sunday best behave and how steeped they are in their belief that they have the right to talk to you however they feel like. this isn`t a rare occurrence, the store has been open four Sundays, i`ve worked three of them and without fail there is at least one person, still dressed for church and comes in and abuses us. and that is primary reason i loathe organised religion; the people.
every time my shift ends at the store i find myself more than a little surprised that it`s over. i`ve never really considered myself a people person but i spend at least 20 hours every week interacting with people, answering questions and giving them the best advice i can and at the end of the day i feel good about it. but i digress.
i think Nashville has more square footage allocated to churches than there is office space, this might be an exaggeration, but i doubt it. drive along any major thoroughfare and there is at least two churches per block or a strip mall. it`s all about what you worship, isn`t it? and all of them, churches and malls are massive erections screaming for attention. and i wonder where is the humility and couldn`t the money spent on building these gaudy displays be better served in helping those in need.
these are the sort of thoughts that i have that make me a `bad` person but i can live with myself.
things must be dire if i`m quoting Ms. Spears or is that Mrs. Federline?
actually it`s really quite simple, my younger daughter has passed her Secondary Assessment Exam and is moving on from primary (or elementary school, for those of you unfamiliar with the British school system) to high school.
i think i covered this last year when my older daughter passed the same exam. they are no longer little girls, well they were never little. my younger daughter is a towering 5` 6″ at 12 and her sister is just marginally shorter. i`m still in awe, i have teen and pre-teen girls in high school, luckily they`re at the same school and i`m incredibly proud of both of them. i have young women.
this is a humbling and frightening thought. i remember what i was like in high school and hope they don`t make the same mistakes. i`ve always joked about getting a gun and being that father sitting on the porch when the young men come to visit but they`re growing up and i`m missing so much of it. i miss them so much.
after 5 years of yeoman service the backlight on my laptop has died. the machine still works, it`s just not portable anymore. there were plans afoot to buy a computer this year, but we`re realising with vic going to school in one direction and me working in the complete opposite direction our days of effectively being a one car household are over. getting to class and work currently have more priority than a new machine at this point.
we`ll live. i`m typing this on the same machine, for which i`d fortuitously bought a keyboard at the store`s fire sale last weekend. i must have sensed that the end was nigh. i`ve been bragging about this machine in the store to customers and co-workers alike, it`s a little abused but it`s been a constant companion for a long time. it`s not anywhere the fastest machine in the world but it still produces paying work and for that i`m very pleased. in computer terms, 5 years is a incredibly long time and the fact i`m running the latest OS and producing paying work is testament to the durability of this machine.
there had been talk of replacing the battery which gives about 10 minutes of charge now but if it`s going to be sitting on the desk, there is no point. i could get the monitor fixed but there is also no point in spending almost $600 to fix this machine. i love it and i`m happy with it, but realistically there is no justifying it. we`re just going to have to soldier on with it as desktop until we can do better. i`ve had a second monitor hooked up to the laptop to have an extended desktop to work on. now i`m working with the laptop closed off the 17″ that i had connected, so i`m just going to have to readjust to having one monitor again.
no. i haven`t turned country overnight, even with the job at CMT. although it`s more MTV than CMT here. it`s very young and hip and i feel somewhat like an observer. i`m not the oldest person here or the only person of colour (there goes my giant token belt buckle idea out the window), but i guess being the new guy i don`t quite feel as if i belong. everyone has been really helpful and pleasant, but i feel like i`m not cool enough to be working here.
but that`s probably my insecurities talking. even tattoo`d and pierced i`ve never though of myself as `cool`. or is it that i`d rather not be part of the cool crowd. whatever, this start as a quick post to let everyone know i was alive and enjoying my job, not a missive to my lack of popularity in high school and how it continues to affect me as an adult.
work is fun, i`m busy. i`m not doing design work and i don`t actually mind, i was a little burnt out. i`m helping manage workflow for the in-house creative and marketing departments here, so i get the best of both worlds; to use my anal retentive organisational skills and to see new and interesting design.
i decided that if i was going to work for CMT i should have clothes to play the part. do you have any idea how hard it is to find ass-less chaps in 42 long? or hat big enough to fit my dreads?
actually i`m kidding. i`ve been too busy enjoying my sense of freedom. i knew my old job was frustrating me but i didn`t realise how much until Friday when i was finally out of that place.
i`m looking forward to starting work tomorrow even though i`ve been sleeping late and lazing about the house. i`m not on the schedule for the store until tomorrow either. it must be the Jamaican in me, but i feel somewhat that Living Color sketch with the guy taking vacation from just one job. i`m trying to remember if i was this edgy last year before i started working.
in the interim, i`ve been cleaning out my computer and enjoying the sublime role playing parody Kingdom of Loathing. i`ve never been much for role playing games, when D&D was getting popular with my peers i discovered that Scrabble; although viewed on the same geekiness scale; was also being played by cute girls and decided that i`d take my chances with the ladies instead. Kingdom of Loathing is too much fun to take as seriously as D&D which is why i think i enjoy it so much.
i start my new job on Wednesday at CMT. and while the infinite probabilities adjust themselves; i mean how much more surreal can you get, 6` 2″ dreadlocks and a Caribbean accent working at country music television in Nashville; i`m taking a few days off.
in a universe where the probabilities were aligned differently, i was supposed to be off this coming week and driving to Miami over the weekend to renew my passport. however that isn`t quite happening but there is a silver lining. first of all i don`t have to drive to Miami, i can fedex my passport to the embassy and i`ll have it back in a month, saving us gas, hotel and complete and utter exhaustion this weekend.
we were going to start out on Saturday afternoon and be back at some ridiculous hour on Tuesday morning at which point vic had class. not fun. this way we can relax this weekend, go hang out with the boy chick and with the money we`ve saved — do a little shopping. vic needs to get some stuff and i need to get some shoes, retail is taking its toll on my feet.
