... but only if it is Oolong with German Rock Sugar from the Teavana tea company.
But seriously. I had some the other day. And I'm taking a new angle on life. It actually had more to do with the packaging than the tea, so I guess I'll go on with the story.
My Grandmother got this awesome tea brewer from Teavana. It takes the real leaves, puts'em straight into the water, and drains the water out of the bottom when you're finished brewing. Simple, straight-forward, ingenious engineering. And then I read the instructions that came along with it... they need to hire a writer or a new one. Or at the very least contract out a proof-reader.
There was a terrible grammatical error in the first three sentences, in both the English and the Spanish. Mistakes in both languages. English they put a period that should have been a comma. Spanish though, they invented a new word, didn't use a verb, and then misspelledthe company's own name. All in the space of five words. It was ghastly. I mean, I could have fixed that.
And then I thought about that again. I could have fixed that.
I could have fixed. If I had been the Technical Writer and had gotten the contract, I could have fixed that.
I did some research, and it turns out that Technical Writers get paid rather well. The jobs don't require any further qualifications than I already have (besides experience). But most importantly, the jobs exist!
So that's what I'm looking at right now. A job that I'm qualified for, where I can earn some money, and gain some peace of mind.
Monday, 07 September 2009
Wow! I'm getting on here again.
I'm home and I have the privacy to get on here again. That is surprising. It's not that my family is nosy and prying (otherwise I wouldn't consider anything posted on here as private from them). Or that there isn't enough space for us here, but simply that the den is a popular room as well as being (until recently) the only room I could access the internet in. But now I have the wireless working on my computer.
I can type this in the privacy of my bedroom with no one walking in randomly and glancing over my shoulder to see what I am doing. I can collect my thoughts and avoid interruptions.
I'll be able to work on some poems now too! It can be hard enough to find the right words on my own, much less in open arena of this house.
It is so comforting! Knowing I can work, and it's me, and there won't be any little side commentaries, or tangents, or people getting funny ideas about the distant states I have to look up to find good Creative Writing schools.
I got a wonderful little package in the mail yesterday.
It had this nice hefty medal in it. The front held a relief depiction of my university landmark, and the words Cum Laude were etched into the back.
A wonderful little package indeed.
Monday, 22 June 2009
I have come across a wonderful Christian philosopher/spiritual director. That slash-spiritual director part is pretty important. That means he's intelligible, quite quite forward and easy to understand. His name is Anthony De Mello. And he has a number of books, some of which are out of print, but I am currently reading Awareness. I am only on page twelve, and am quite impressed.
In other news, yes I have read Henri Nouwen. And it is like you said he thinks and writes a lot like I do. I read The Wounded Healer last week. He gives a rather nice perspective of ministry in a modern world in that book. His modern world is 1972, but most of it is still very relevant.
Nouwen has a very elegant style in his writing. De Mello has a very frank style. Nouwen contemplative. De Mello practical. Two very different minds. Two very great minds.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Nostalgia hit me like a train tonight.
I was supposed to be packing, but I was going to go over to a friend's. I was supposed to go over to a friend's but I lost track of time, playing a computer game trying not to think about leaving. So I took a walk around campus, almost an hour long. I'm going to miss it. It's going to change. There were some trees planted around Old Main my freshman year. Already their lowest branches are above my head. It got me thinking as I walked on. Their are several big oak trees and sweet gums on campus. What did they look like the thirty years ago when my uncle was here? Were they even planted sixty years ago when my great-uncle graduated?
It is hard to leave a place. Sometimes it is harder to come back and see it changed so much. But I don't think I could live like Chuck. I think I will have to come back here eventually. I think curiosity will be too much. Chuck, a professor of mine, had a small town that his family visited in the summers. He had family down there. Cousins, I think. He hasn't been back down there since he graduated high school, and he has decided that he never will return so he can hold the same city pristine in his head. Knowing that it doesn't match reality.
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