It’s been nearly 2 months since I posted something substantial about myself. Personally, I’m all for keeping attention off myself, but that’s not what this blog is about right? It’s about getting stuff out there and seeing what happens. So here’s what you’ve missed so far: I’ve been seriously ill twice, had a major breakthrough in wedding planning, watched one of my best friends get married in a simple municipal ceremony, volunteered for a film festival (ActionFest) organized by folks involved in the International Toronto Film Festival, and got a full-time internship in Blacksburg.
Sorry for the long hiatus between posts, but the time away has been filled with wedding trips, illness, volunteering adventures and the intriguing excitement of possible employment.
I intend to fill you in on as much as I can soon, but for now: FIGHT!!!
I found this story on my Facebook feed this morning, posted by a friend with close ties to George Mason University. The events depicted in the following article are both upsetting and deplorable. I’m sharing this because it needs to be shared in hopes that it will get to someone who can help take action against the individuals involved.Because you need to login to Facebook to read the article, I’ve posted it below, but a non-Facebook version can be found here as well.
Please read the article in full and then share it with others.
I woke up exhausted, cold and with a bit of a headache. Like most mornings when I don’t feel like getting out of bed, I turn on my iPod to connect with the world, check my email, maybe watch a TV show before heading downstairs for food. My twitter feed started out like normal – local news, a North Carolina concert announcement from Live Nation about Prince and then there it was – The earthquake that rocked Japan, sending a tsunami to Hawaii and the California coast. Then I turned on my phone to find a text from my mom that my cousin’s husband died last night.
Derez: short for Deresolution; a term from the Disney series Tron which refers to someone being dissolved. For a computer program, deresolution equates to death.
Weird way to start a post, I concur, but I use it for two reasons: 1) the song from Tron: Legacy inspired by the term is a favorite and 2) death doesn’t mean the end of all things, just the end of something. Whether human life or that of a computer program, all things are energy and energy never dies.
Yesterday was like many others – I got up, walked the dog, had breakfast and started going through my email. Mixed between MediaPost articles and Monster Job Alert was a message from a Charlotte marketing firm responding to my application for a Public Relations AE position. Unfortunately they determined that I wasn’t qualified for the opening, which surprised me given that they wanted someone with a minimum of five years experience in marketing and a familiarity with social media. That’s when it hit me – Finding employment is like trying to get a date.
Rules of being a "Bro"
So what is The Bro Code and what does it have to do with all this? The Bro Code is an invented set of rules and regulations created by fictional character, and perpetual lothario, Barney Stinson of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. The “Code” is intended to help “Bros” know how to behave with other “Bros” when it comes to women. For example, article 87 – “A Bro shall at all times say ‘Yes’” – meaning that if 1 “Bro” is trying to pick up a woman, the other “Bro” must always support whatever the first “Bro” says, even at the risk of incurring shame or public embarrassment. Or article 29 – “A Bro will in a timely manner alert his Bro to the existence of a girl fight.” This one is self-explanatory. (They can’t all be winners, but you get the idea.)*
While these rules of comportment might help one “Bro” in his quest to woo a lady, there are no real rules for job hunting. And as someone who’s been searching for nearly a year and a half, rules would help. It does seem, though, that the similarities between the “rules” of getting a date are quite similar to those of finding employment.
Last Monday I watched, what would otherwise have been, the season finale of NBC’s Chuck. If you’re unfamilar, here’s the short, SHORT version:
Geeky guy works at a Best Buy-like store with his high school best friend, gets all the combined secrets of the US Military downloaded into his brain, and for four seasons he has used this information to help take down bad guys. Insert nerd references to video games, movies, and other forms of celebrated (or obscure) Geekdom and serve!
The end of 2010 reminds me of a season 4 episode of How I Met Your Mother titled “As Fast As She Can“. In it, the main protagonist, Ted Mosby, has a conversation with his ex-fiancee.
Ted: Okay, I’m going to say something out loud that I’ve been doing a pretty good job of not saying out loud lately. What you and Tony have, what I thought for a second you and I had, what I know that Marshall and Lily have, I want that. I do. I keep waiting for it to happen. I’m waiting for it to happen and I guess I’m just tired of waiting. And that is all I’m going to say on that subject.
Stella: You know how I talked my way out of a speeding ticket?
Ted: Really?
Stella: I was heading upstate with my parents, I was doing 90 on the country roads. I got pulled over. So this cop, gets out of his car, swaggers over and he says, ‘Lady, I’ve been waiting for you all day.’ And I said, ‘Sorry Officer, I got here as fast as I could.’
Ted: For real?
Stella: No, it’s just a joke. [pause] I know that you’re tired of waiting. And you may have to wait a little while more but, she’s on her way, Ted. And she’s getting here as fast as she can.
Reading the tweets and status updates of friends and family, I suspect that many of them have been waiting for 2011 and all the hope it brings to arrive, and it got it as fast as it could.
