Writing, papers, and projected survival of summer

First off, I'm in dire need of a job. I've started looking, and I know I'm not the first to say this but trying to find a job really sucks. I need something to help me survive the summer as I've just figured out my finances, and I probably have just enough to help me survive through June. Then I'm dead in the water. Not a good feeling. So, I'm trying to find a job with the limited time I have to actually look for one. And living in Stockton doesn't help one iota.

I've been working (well, when I can) on a new set of short stories. One is a humorous police procedural ("I got the call at 2 am; somehow I always seem to get the call at 2am....") about a private eye who gets hired to follow this woman's husband who appears to be seeing "someone" behind her back. The other story I'm working on is "The Situation Room" where the president and his cabinet are arguing a nuclear strike against a country that has taken hostile action against the U.S. Both stories have the signature Duane Gundrum slant to them, meaning that what you're reading isn't what you're really reading, that there's definitely a story hidden within the story itself that doesn't reveal itself until the end, and then sums up the original story better than if you'd known the story beforehand. I don't know how I came upon this style, but it seems to be working for me. I think I may have adopted a pseudo-Dorothy Lessing (Briefing for a Descent into Hell) stylism that is more working to redefine my own style of writing. Someone during a writing class once told me that I had a "moralistic" style of story-telling, and I think I took that to heart and instead of write the usual morality stories, that involve the action leading to the moral ending, I've managed to integrate the moralism into the story itself so that when the end is reached, we're not talking about the same story that began when the reading began.

Which brings me to papers. I'm currently doing a ton of research on the August 1991 coup in the Soviet Union that was pretty much stopped by Boris Yeltsin in Moscow. I'm doing this research as a rhetorical criticism of Yeltsin's counter-narrative of the coup perpetrators' narrative that they attempted to sell to the Soviet people about a return to the glory days of a great Soviet Union. It's an intersting project, and I'll probably have it completed soon.

However, the reason I chose this particular project is that I have been trying to rewrite one of my earlier novels called To Touch the Unicorn, about an international agent for a corporation who devotes most of his life to disrupting the economies of other countries. I originally placed him in Russia for a mission during the time of the Soviet Union, but then the Soviet satellites fell, leaving only the Soviet Union, which forced me to have to rewrite a whole bunch of scenes involving a clandestine trip through East Germany and Poland. Then the Soviet Union fell, and that kind of ruined the second rewrite of the story. So I tried rewriting it again, and it just never really rang true for me. However, when latching onto the August 1991 coup, I realized exactly where and when this story belonged. As soon as I finish with this rhetorical criticism, I am going to be focusing on the final rewrite of this book, and I'm thinking of changing the title to something along the lines of 72 Hours in August. The reason this is so important is because the character I created is a brilliant character, and I've so wanted to use him in future novels, but it's hard to work a series character when the first book that introduces him continues to be incomplete. Personally, I just love the idea of integrating real world events with my fictional events so that someone with a passion for history can read the novel and say "Wow, that could have actually happened, and no one would have ever suspected."

One last thing: For reasons I can't explain, I'm still having problems with the flu or whatever it was I had a few weeks ago. I don't have the flu anymore, but I get huge coughing fits that I can't stop, and last weekend was really bad. Sometimes, it hurts when I speak. I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow, to see if maybe some logical explanation can be ascertained, but something needs to be done because this has been going on way too long, and I really want to get back to feeling normal again. Well, as normal as one can, I guess.

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1st prize at the Stockton Arts Council Contest

Some time ago, I mentioned that I entered my short story, "Buried Memories" into the Stockton Arts Council contest in the adults category. I received a phone call a few minutes ago informing me that I won first place. There's a reception I'll be attending on April 7th as a result. Not bad, eh?

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Housing and the flu

I've had the flu for about a week now (or going on a week). It's been really bad. I pretty much canceled everything last week, except for my class I have to teach on Friday. Having canceled Wednesday's class, it would have been too much of a problem to cancel Friday's also as we are doing speeches, and it would put us way, way behind.

As I believe I mentioned before, my housing for summer through the university wasn't going to happen because I can't stay here while not attending summer school. But today, I went and looked at a room near campus, and it's the one I'm going to take. I'll take possession of the room on April 1st, and that should give me a few weeks to move my stuff from here to the new place. So I guess that worked out okay.

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Japan really needs to come clean

You know, I'm a big fan of Japan and all things culturally dealing with Japan, but what shocks me is that this island of people cannot fess up to the whole comfort women situation it inflicted on women during World War II. Now, it's come to the point where its politicians are speaking for a nationalist sentiment power base and the rest of the Asian countries are going to start isolating Japan over this particular, stupid issue.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Japan must confront its past of coercing women into prostitution with Japanese troops in World War Two, China's foreign minister said on Tuesday, nonetheless stressing hopes of improved ties between the two Asian powers.

"The forced use of so-called 'comfort women' was one of the most serious crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in World War Two," Li Zhaoxing told a news conference on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism for wartime sex slaves. For more, click here.

Now, all Japan really had to do is fess up to the situation, and it can begin dealing with the future in a positive nature. Instead, it's burying itself in the past, and as a result people are going to start pointing figures at generations that never had anything to do with the original atrocities.

As it is, I don't want to buy Japanese products anymore. I felt this same way with South Africa during Apartheid, but if Japan wants to play the game of pretending this crap never happened, I think what the rest of the world can do is avoid any type of economic situation that deals with Japan. Granted, we can't cut off everything, but when you are faced with a decision where a Japanese product and a non-Japanese product are in front of you, choose the other one, at least until Japan starts to realize that it can't have its Coke and Pepsi in the same glass. This means a lot of specific products can be avoided as a result. What's interesting is that Japan will never realize that people are boycotting it, so it may seem like a worthless task, but in the end, much like I felt with Apartheid, it sure felt better knowing that each decision I made that did not benefit that country was a personal, moral victory for me.

And that's the lego spaceman's take on that.

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Driving without a road

You ever have one of those assignments you have to complete, but you haven't a clue how to actually do it? That's kind of where I am right now. I know what I'm doing can't be right, but this is where I am after talking to the instructor. I'm kind of more confused than when I started out. And joy of joys, it's due tomorrow.

It's kind of funny, really. This kind of thing used to really bother me before, but right now it's just kind of inconvenient. I'm studying a subject I really don't know anything about, and I'm slowly learning a little bit about it, but nowhere where I feel I should be at the level that I'm at right now. I tried to give the assignment to Joshua, my pet penguin, but he just laughed at me. Elmer, my pet frog, won't make eye contact, cause he realizes I'm going to ask him next.

And Angelina Jolie, who has been crashing at my house looking for refugees to adopt, is just pissing me off because she's eating all of my Yogurt and thinks that just sitting there on my futon looking hot is all she needs to do. Okay, that is all she needs to do, but don't let her know that or she'll be IMPOSSIBLE to be around.

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Cherokee Nation entering into public relations disaster

The Cherokee Nation appears to have a public relations problem as it is revoking citizenship to freed slaves who once had the status of citizens of their nation. Their spokesperson argues that this is not a racist thing, but that it should be seen as an example of how open their nation is when it comes to citizenship. Yeah, that's really going to happen. Here's the article:

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Cherokee Nation vote this weekend to revoke the citizenship of the descendants of people the Cherokee once owned as slaves was a blow to people who have relied on tribal benefits.
For full story, click here.

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Podcasting

Just trying out the basics of podcasting, I've started by podcasting one of my earlier stories, The Rubicon Highway. Yeah, it's pretty amateurish, but I figure it's one of those things that just requires experience of doing it a lot.

The Rubicon Highway by Duane Gundrum

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Going to be experimenting with new technology

I've decided to start experimenting with podcasting for some my stories. I'm currently learning how to use the technology.

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I started working out again today

Yeah, it's been a long time. I went to the UOP fitness center and worked on some weights and then sat on the Lifecycle for half an hour. Then I turned it on and sat on it for another 24 minutes. :)

I've been having pain in my left arm for about three or four weeks now, and it's not getting any better. There's something wrong with the muscle, and I'm hoping that by working out with the deltoid area, I might be able to strengthen the muscle, in hopes that the problem is more about not using the muscle as much as I should. I tried massage therapy, and that didn't really seem to make a difference. It still hurts a lot when I try to sleep at night.

I used to be in great physical shape. I'm going to see if I can recapture some of that shape again, even if I realize I can't be in the shape I was back then when I was a spry young lad.

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Transgendered folk need not apply...or keep their jobs either

It appears from the following article

LARGO, Florida (AP) -- The City Commission voted to begin the process of firing a top official less than a week after he announced plans to pursue a sex-change operation.

The 5-to-2 vote Tuesday started a three-step process to remove City Manager Steve Stanton from the job he's held for 14 years.

Stanton, 48, confirmed last week that he is a transsexual. With a solid reputation as a forceful and energetic leader, he had hoped to keep his $140,000-a-year job as he underwent the gender reassignment process.

(to read rest of article, click here)

I find this article quite interesting because if you think about it, City Manager Steve Stanton really hasn't done anything wrong, illegal or even inappropriate. He's decided that he wishes to pursue a sex-change operation. What I find fascinating is that Commissioner Mary Gray Black had this to say in bringing her demand for a vote:

"I do not feel he has the integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the confidence to continue as the city manager of the city of Largo," said Black, who introduced a resolution to fire Stanton on Monday.

In other words, because he decided to change his sex, she brought forth a resolution to fire him because the city manager of the city of Largo really shouldn't be, um, a transsexual? If he was gay, would that be okay? If he was African-American, would that be okay? I'm having a hard time figuring out how someone's sexual identity figures into someone's capacity for doing a job he/she has in a city.

I guess transgendered folk have a LONG way to go yet. It should be interesting to see if anyone actually comes to his defense, or if other previously attacked peoples feel that they need to draw the line at this particular minority group.

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Housing

Turns out that my housing only allows me to stay on campus until summer starts. This means I haven't an idea what I'm going to do once we hit summer. I went into Housing to ask about staying on during summer, but because I won't be taking any classes in summer, I can't stay here, and if I want to return to my apartment, I have to move everything out, store it and then move it all back in next fall.

So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do now.

I'm also trying to find some type of job, and that's not going very well. I first started by looking for a paid internship, but that may be problematic because it requires also registering for classes (ie, an internship) which would cost more than the internship would pay.

So I applied to two positions with the university itself, and I received one of those automatic reply messages to my school email address (not the one I indicated in my application, mainly because my school email address has been sporadically successful at actually connecting to me over the course of the time I've been here). This gives me that old sense of fitting in as the old cog in the wheel situation, as they probably didn't even pay attention to the application's information and just sent out a preprinted response to an address they had using an autopilot feature of response.

Which means I'm going to have to seriously broaden my search to find something, which brings up two possible controversies:

1. I'll find something, and I may end up having to leave school because the work doesn't coincide with the hours required for academics.

2. I won't find anything, and I'll be completely screwed without any further options.

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