| Tender Retires |
[Apr. 20th, 2007|12:23 am] |
As anyone who read this might have noticed, I stop posting to this blog several months ago (around January). This was mostly due to the fact that I felt tenderjefferson was a product and expression of my time in China, and that having arrived back in the States, his purpose was served. Also, my life felt pretty boring at the time, and I didn't want to waste my time or my readers' time with entries about how my day at work/school went.
But!
A new era-- and new blog-- is on the horizon!
With my graduation only weeks away, exciting new chapters of travel and adventure are quickly approaching!
tenderjefferson readers are hereby offered an exclusive invitation to sneak-peak my new blog at www.dumplinghaiku.blogspot.com.
"Dumpling Haiku - A Life Both Delicious and Poetic" is a blog dedicated to living a good life: travel, language, poetry, art, nature, philosophy, adventure, and random observation.
Currently, excerpts of my honors capstone thesis "The Art of Living," an original work of philosophy, are being posted as I write them, along with daily haiku. In the coming weeks and months, the blog will feature tidings from my adventures across America, Ireland, Alaska, and China. At all times, readers can be assured of the most interesting and insightful writing I have to offer.
Please visit often and comment liberally; I hope the new blog will be a forum for friendly exchange, furious debate, and scrumptious haiku. |
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| A good bit of news |
[Feb. 27th, 2007|01:30 pm] |
At the office where I intern (the International Center for Journalists), my supervisor called me in to her office for "the Talk about the Future." I started telling her about my wonderful ideas for the future, where cyborg puppy dogs will do our bidding in exchange for virtual milk-bones. It turned out, however, that she wanted to talk about my future with the organization.
She said they were very happy with the work I've been doing (mostly writing articles about journalist training opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region) and explained that the ICFJ had recently lost a key "project manager," and the only person that could fill the empty space was my boss.
And so begins my meteoric rise to power in the non-profit journalism world. My editor takes the departing manager's job, and ICFJ hires me as an Assistant Editor to begin immediately, with direct writing and editing responsibilities for Asia-Pacific, Mid-East/North Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe.
I get bumped up to three days a week, and get paid a cool $15/hour.
So now homie's got a corner office two blocks from the White House, the word "editor" on his resume, and a $300/week income.
Those of you who know me might be surprised: I never struck anyone as the 9-5 type, did I?
Believe me, no one is more taken aback than myself. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 21st, 2007|10:57 pm] |
Today, sunshine broke through clouds and melted ice and put a swing in my step big enough to circle the globe in a couple strides.
I broke out the sleeveless T and sunglasses and took the long route to school, listening to beautiful music and beautiful poetry and stretching my arms wide across the sidewalk, like I planned to hug the sky.
It's astounding how strongly tied my mood remains to the weather; watching sunlight glance off the pools of melted snow felt like taking my spirit for a bicycle ride downhill, thrilling and full of wind. Today's weather was a buried treasure we dug up by luck, or a gift from heaven, or a swirling, irrational blend of geo-climactic elements; one of these three. But whether you believe in Chance or in God or in Science, surely the sun laid a smile on your face and a reaffirmation of the loveliness of life in the most winter-worn chambers of your heart.
Personally I believe in God, because Chance is too cruel and I have neither the patience nor capacity for Science. So let this be a prayer of thanks-- to you God-- for a sunny, sublime afternoon in February.
Amen.
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 16th, 2007|12:58 am] |
So the bad news is, I'm still having trouble falling asleep, despite having gone to considerable lengths to rectify this: I've started exercising every day at 6 pm; I've cut caffeinated and high-sugar goods completely from my diet; I don't take naps during the day; I do all my reading and computer-work outside my bedroom; and I get as much fresh air as is possible in 15 degree weather.
The good news is, I've come to terms with my situation, and have begun making (at least somewhat) productive use of my early morning hours. For example, I've started writing my thesis; I've been studying Chinese; I've been reading! Books on mysticism, on liberation theology, on the politics of Beijing's monument architecture. When I find something I'm interested in, I go right on and read more about it: two nights ago I was up at 3 am reading about apartheid South Africa on Wikipedia. Last night I read about the 22 year old girl who became the student commander of the protests at Tiananmen, and when I was finished, I read the article about her in Chinese on the Chinese Wiki.
I'll say this much: not sleeping has broadened my intellectual horizons by a size or two.
During the day, things are going okay, hum-drum but no complaints.
I've been interning 15 hours a week at The International Center for Journalism, which-- if still an office job-- is at least some good career experience and could easily lead to a lot of opportunities in the future.
My big excitement last week was receiving my HSK scores. These were the results of the state-administered Chinese proficiency exam that I took my last day in Xi'an, and.... I rocked it! I scored in the highest grade possible, earning myself a Level 8 Intermediate Grade A certificate, two levels higher than I anticipated. The certificate-- aside from being a great professional asset-- officially allows me to enroll in higher education programs at universities in China; if I ever want to get a Master's degree, I can do it in Chinese!
Elsewise, same shit different day. The weather has me closeted in; no Dupont chess, certainly no Ultimate Frisbee. Haven't even really been to the slam in a couple weeks. 为什么？我也不知道。
Keep it cool, cats.
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 8th, 2007|03:07 am] |
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I can't sleep.
Every once in awhile-- more frequently in the past weeks-- I have trouble falling asleep.
No reason; no caffeine before bed, no major problems pressing at the back of my mind. I just lie in bed, eyes shut, letting my mind pass wander as it will... I do what one normally does before falling asleep, only with no result; I lie there for an hour, two hours and still nothing. I've tried the usual sedative tricks: counting sheep, drinking warm milk, reading Kant, etc but all to no avail.
Perhaps I need more exercise? The winter months have a depressing affect on me, and this combined with a busy schedule leaves me with little fresh air each day, little movement of my limbs.
But deep down a part of me suspects that my restlessness is related to a very dull, very muted discontent... that despite the fullness and productiveness of my days, I'm still yearning for something I don't have.
I miss China, or more specifically, the life I led in China. And for all the experience and relative wisdom that I have in this matter, I still find it difficult to accept my situation in the present and not lie in bed and think about other places, other people, other ways of spending days. It's very difficult.
To be young, perhaps, is naturally to be restless.
The trick I'm still trying to learn is to channel that restlessness into something creative, into something useful, into something beautiful.
In the meantime, I can't sleep.
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 31st, 2007|12:49 pm] |
This has always been one of my favorite photographs, taken of a mother and daughter eating soup dumplings in a small dumpling house in
Shanghai. I'm posting it now for three reasons:
1) I miss dumplings.
2) The expression of the daughter watching her mom eat is priceless and adorable.
3) I'm trying out Google's new blog-posting program that lets me upload pictures to my LJ easily and for free.
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| Yesterday's Cloud |
[Jan. 30th, 2007|02:19 pm] |
Yesterday I walked to school bundled up in my coat against the cold, sunny morning air. Head down, eyes on the ground. Listening to a beautiful song on my iPod. Cracks in the sidewalk and the roots of trees. I lifted my head and took a sharp breath. I saw a cloud laced with sunshine. It was moving.
I watched the cloud-- it gave me a feeling both familiar and exciting, the feeling of sharing a smile with the rest of the world, and a secret. This cloud brought me back to other places, other times: watching the sunset on island beaches in Thailand; cruising with my friends in New England in the summer; walking endless hours by myself in the hills of West China; trekking in the sands of New Mexico; watching a bird alight on a rock as the sun rises in Israel-- moments of intense satisfaction and happiness and joy in my surroundings; the knowledge that there is nowhere else I'd rather be than right here and right now, the knowledge that life is beautiful even when it's mundane.
Honestly, I used to get that feeling a lot more often than I do now. In China, I'd go for hikes almost every weekend, and almost never did I leave the mountains without feeling touched, without feeling that I'd touched something vast and wonderful and immovable.
But all the same, it was such a pleasure to reconnect with that sense now and here, to remember that even in the cities of traffic and politics, even at the schools and jobs that we hate and the routines we tolerate because we have too, even when we least suspect it, we are never far from something larger. There is always a cloud, and it is always moving.
Just lift your head. |
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| The Boot... or, The Devil's Boot... or, The d |
[Jan. 29th, 2007|04:52 pm] |
As I walked one day in a pasture
-- much like this one --
amid the grassy fields of the Colony Massachussetts
I happened to stumble upon a Boot
Lying-- tattered and discarded-- in the mud at the foot of my path.
I was able to divine immediately
That This was the Boot of the Devil.
Allow me to explain:
Firstly, the Boot was squashed Flat;
Flatter than the Beer one is made to drink in Hell.
Furthermore, it had Six -- 6 6 6 -- Shoelace Holes
And these were clearly the six beady eyes of Cerebus,
Three-headed Bitch of Hades.
Finally, in its tattered state, I was able to see that
The Boot had no Soul.
Being, as it is, my sworn mission to cleanse the earth of evil
in all its forms and manifestations,
I quickly set upon ridding the world of this insidious tool of Satan.
I addressed the Boot thusly:
"Ahoy, Vile Footwear of Lucifer! It is I, Jacob the Righetous
Here to destroy your wicked soul.
Relinquish now your evil ways, and perhaps you shall be spared the Brunt of my Wrath."
The Boot-- whether out of insolence or of the fact that its tongue was missing, I know not which-- was silent.
"Now listen ye, and listen ye well," I said.
"Fallen Angel though you may be, even sinners can find love in God's grace.
Repent immediately, or bear the full fire of God's righetous hand!"
The Boot lay in the mud, and was silent.
"So!" I said, "You want to play with the Ball that is Hard!
Very well-- but be warned, you will regret your defiance when you
Rot for Eternity in the Fiery Asscrack of Hell!"
The Boot... said nothing.
"HOLY JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!!" I blasphemed
"WILL NOTHING QUENCH YOUR INSATIABLE THIRST FOR BLOOD???"
And with that I smote the boot once, twice, thrice
With my Cane, pushing it further into the mud
And closer than before to the flaming bowels of the underworld.
"Take that, you Asshole!" I thundered.
The Boot lay there in the mud... defeated at last.
And I, with task complete and the earth safe once more,
Prepared to set out once again upon my path.
But before I did, I took a moment to say a Prayer to God
And thank Him for the Strength that he had given me. |
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