oddjustice

I have slouched,
from the silver city
to the last great oasis

Lips cracked,
skin curled and smoking,

I arrive,
a beam of light, a mute vibration

amongst the grove.

I slink in shadows,
Illuminating; hungry
I slide up trunks, down boughs

laden

with crimson, heavy fruits
salivating dryly,

I bite,
eyes rolled back, thirsty, hungry,
crying

No juice of course;
only ash; I cough

sputter, choke

and slide down, illuminated.

I walk.

Sketch:

Packed apples and and sandwiches with Monster’s hands.
Callouses and jelly; claws and sweet red fruit.

Drowned in the irony of tomorrow.
Came up for air, gasping and clawing
heaved...

Still waiting to be landed.

So I uploaded my resume to College Central to restart the great, unending job hunt.  Career Services reviews those resumes and provides feedback/cockblocks them.

Phyllis Schaen's response to my latest resume:

Good start to your resume, Joseph, but suggest you read resume tutorial and samples on www.ringling.edu/talent under Password Protected. This tutorial has been favorably reviewed by a number of employers and it will help you with layout. Suggest Objective not be on your resume - better in a cover letter. "I" "my" and other personal pronouns do not go on a resume.
Thank you.

My response to her:

Respectully Phyllis, I've reviewed all of the tutorials and samples that Career Services has to offer and I've sat in meetings with Charles before.  I realize that my resume does not conform to those examples and I'm fine with the decision that I've made regarding it's design and content. 

Please confirm the resume as-is and I'll take my chances on the market.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

Joe Johnson

Thanks anyway PS.

Facebook friends often provide the best foils for political arguments. While my political activity is relegated to discussing the actions of others (as I would never consider political action a worthwhile endeavor), I must admit a vague desire to influence others SOMEHOW. Consider the following exchange.

Originally Posted by Kurt Henningson |

I hope they hunt Assange down and take him out.

My response |

I'm not sure why. The cables don't appear that damning to me. Anyone who thinks that a diplomat is anything but a spy that you know is a spy is naive at best. As far as the other things revealed by th...e cables, there's nothing in there that's particularly surprising. Reprehensible, sure, but nothing that we didn't suspect. If anything, I think it's hilarious that the Arab nations are agitating for us to attack Iran.

I imagine their motivations are multifaceted, but I can't imagine that they see Iranian (Persian) meddling as any better than our own.

And as far as Assange goes, I would think that he constitutes a hero for any anti-authoritarian out there...

"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange

If conservatives weren't such fetishists for open and covert warfare, I imagine they might see him very differently. But the fact remains that they will continue to revere big government as long as it is a tight-lipped military-industrial regime.

And Kurt, I don't know if you're a member of the Tea Party (I can't recall), but if you are, I would think that a member of a group with such heavy libertarian leanings would value those individuals willing to challenge those in power, regardless of their ideological perspective.

After all, the best way to make a government responsible to the people is to shine light on all their hidden secrets. If you give them nowhere to hide, they'll have to behave themselves.

Whenever someone mentions Assange in the same breath as the words kill, arrest, or traitor (yes, some people assume that EVERYONE in the news is an American) I get an uncomfortable shock when I realize that people who claim that they value freedom rarely value it for anyone other than themselves.

Freedom for the free is the rallying cry of American conservatives.  Freedom for me to marry, but not for the gays (for a time it was not for mixed couples, but whatever).  Freedom for corporations, but not for their workers.

I truly wish I had some polemic quote to finish this post, but despite my outrage at everyone's inconsistency (including my own flawed worldview) I find it hard to imagine the world any other way.  Experience has taught me that almost nobody is self-reflective when it comes to their political positions, and those that are, like myself, are often either political wallflowers or the most callous and effective political manipulators.

When you realize the game is simply to convince people that your position is their position, it becomes possible to do anything, convince people to do and say ANYTHING. 

Oh, hang on.  I may have found the perfect polemic to finish with.

"Liberty is a bitch who must be bedded on a mattress of corpses"
- St. Just co-architect of the french terror

I have been dreaming of my sister all evening. I would have cherished her very much I think. I think she would have been 16 this year. I remember very clearly when my mother's ectopic pregnancy had to be cut out. It's strange to feel the loss of a sibling like a phantom limb some 16 years later in dreams, but she would have been graceful and funny, and very much my friend. I hope I get to meet you somewhere other than dreams Maria.

Another year at Ringling's down. A B and an A. I did really well in my GIC class, and to be honest, the job I've gotten is probably a result of that.

I noticed it's been almost a year since I last posted. I've been busy. It often seems as though the days blend together.

Things are going well though. I'm starting a professional career and I'm happy to get started.

School's been going well. It's always good to set goals for yourself and mine is to acquaint myself with watercolors this semester. Hopefully with Perez's help I'll pick up some important stuff. In the meantime I've got a watercolor sketch book and I've been working in it. It's been helpful, but I really should do some color studies before I start in on a final project. Not that my sketchbook represents a final product, but it's good to get in practice.

It always seems like my personal life is a shambles during my most productive moments. I'm getting physically ill at times worrying about my relationship with Virginia. Like right now.

I can't sleep tonight. I guess I'll just keep working.

I think I'm going to be playing City of Heroes again soon. I've got the itch to beat up punks around Paragon City.