So since I haven't been working and have decided to buckle down and apply for graduate study, I've been feeling a little more creative. While I'm having trouble ending that short story I started the other night (it's really short; another paragraph will do it) -- as well as another old one I began at work a while back and have just rediscovered (same deal; a paragraph or two more and it'll be complete) -- I've started penning another screenplay (which should be great; it's an idea I've been kicking around for a while, and it's based more/less on a folk tale, so many of the developments are already... developed). Also, to reacquaint myself with the format, I dug up the last unfinished screenplay I wrote -- an assignment I did for a screenwriting course at Yale; we were supposed to submit a half-finished screenplay with the rest of the story outlined as our final "project" -- and reading over it, I'm finding myself thinking that it's actually very good and worth finishing. I've got some great dialogue in here, and some themes are explored that I'd like to incorporate into the new screenplay as well. Fun times. And, as you'll see in a moment, I've also been doing some sketching.

Hopefully I won't get so caught up in this stuff that I completely forget about the grad school applications! I won't, though -- just saying. 😛

So one thing in particular has bugged me about the hurricane coverage -- the fact that the hurricane is named "Katrina". Other hurricane names in recent memory haven't been quite as troubling, but when they talk about the "devastation left in Katrina's wake" all I can picture is a really gorgeous and vicious woman wading through water destroying everything she touches... so I was inspired to sketch the image of Katrina that keeps playing in my head. The problem, though, is that I think she needs to be wearing something... but I can't imagine what the human incarnation of a force of nature would wear. True, togas and hooded robes seem appropriate for her station, but I think an ultra-powerful swamp queen needs something different... if anything at all. Force of nature, al natural. I dunno.

Also, oddly enough, I think I'm more stressed now than I was when I was freaking out about the whole moving thing -- or at least I feel like I am. Even then, at my worst, I'd touch this stress card and it'd read me as being calm, but now that I've got very little to worry about in the immediate sense, it's saying I'm super stressed in that the temperature sensor thing isn't changing at all. I feel very, very cold and I'm shaking a lot. I don't know what that means.

Okay, I'm out -- will post more in a few days. In the meantime, feel free to check out the latest Scary-Crayon article, which was actually "done" out of my NYC hostel room! Ja ne.

I don't know how it happened, but this page ended up among the referrals to this page. That makes me glad.

In other news, I went to the local library and borrowed a bunch of books on Marxist thought. I meant to pick up some specific philosophy titles, but our library doesn't have them. I did get Harry Potter and Philosophy, though.

Oh, did I mention? Instead of embarking on this crazy move and losing myself in a new job, I'm gonna buckle down and study my options and apply to grad school. English or Philosophy? That is the question. If only there were a program that combined the study of both areas! Perhaps there is. I will look into it. Maybe one of my old professors knows something... assuming they remember me at all!

I feel more creative already, though -- I actually wrote a little of a short story tonight! And regarding the Marx -- that's more/less research for a book I've been planning to write for a while and will finally have time to work on. Nonfiction. Ooh baby. Maybe I'll dig up my drawings and finish that illustrated kids' book I started working on a while back, too.

It kinda sucks that I'm not working anymore -- and therefore don't have any more cash coming in -- but it's so refreshing to have a viable plan, projects to work on, and the time to actually see them through! Shit, maybe I'll even clean my room. ('Cause it's even worse now.)

Ja!

There's still more to be said about my latest exploits in NYC, but I'm still not quite up to discussing the particulars -- so for the time being I'm simply going to paste from an e-mail I wrote that gets the message across (though it's fairly similar to what I wrote in the previous entry):

So right now I'm trying to hash out my options and my next move -- I want to be somewhere where I could be happy, or something resembling it. I'm not happy here, but also I don't think I could be in a place where everyone talks fast to try to confuse you so they can swindle you out of your money or your place in line or whatever. I want to be someplace where people don't scowl at you when you smile and say, "Hello," as you pass -- someplace where people are moving slowly enough that you can actually pause to do that without being bowled over by the person sprinting along the sidewalk at your back. Someplace where the politicians don't strike me as obviously being gangsters. (But maybe that's just their accents.) Someplace where the concept of "speed dating" seems as ludicrous to everyone else as it does to me. I held the door open at Port Authority for the person behind me and was stuck standing there while fourteen people pushed through without a second glance in my direction.

I did finally get my hands on a copy of the Cutie Honey live action film -- the 2-disc Collector's Edition, no less! -- so the trip wasn't a total drag. Eriko Sato is bloody hot, dontchaknow. (more...)

And kind of glad to be so, actually -- 'cause despite a few pleasant encounters, I can't say that this was a fun trip overall. Maybe I missed some things on my previous trips to NYC because they were more/less recreational visits, but this first "business" trip has prompted me to kinda stop and seriously reconsider my plan to move to the big city. Almost everything struck me as being fast, brutal, competitive, even cruel -- all things that I am not -- and I don't know if I could be happy in a place like that. Granted, I'm not happy here, but being here doesn't scare me -- whereas I think I was more terrified at points during these past two days than I've ever been in my entire life. Maybe it was just me psyching myself out? I don't know.

Anyway, I'll probably follow through with some of the things currently in motion, and if nothing pans out I think it would be good for me to step back and think really hard about where I want to be and what I want out of that place. Maybe take a couple of months to travel around to different cities and see what they have to offer. I definitely like metropolitan areas, but I think somewhere a little more laid-back might be more my speed... we'll see.

Right now, however, I think I need to sleep. I'll write more about the specifics of the trip later. TTFN.

So in less than nine hours I leave for my first "serious" voyage to NYC -- I've got a couple of apartment viewings scheduled, some others I plan to walk in and view, a job interview on Friday, and a few other places I plan to swing by and leave a resume (possibly more, depending upon what I see in the local papers). I'm not sure what I'm more worried about -- the employment thing or the job thing! I mean, theoretically speaking, it's no big deal if I can't find an apartment, since I can always come back here (I'm planning to travel to and from NYC until then; frex, I'm coming back Friday night), and even if I do find an apartment I'll probably be making frequent trips back here to transport certain essentials, etc. But then, on the off chance that I do get hired at one of these places, I'll need somewhere to live so I can start work! So it seems like the apartment should take top priority, but the shadow of unemployment really bothers me. Anyway, hopefully something will pan out!

In other news: As I think I already mentioned, Friday was my last day at my old job. The topmost photo is a picture of me on my last day there -- I colored myself blue for no reason in particular. Actually, I was kinda sad to leave, despite appearances to the contrary. I was pretty good at maintaining those accounting books despite having had no previous training in that area and I did like the folks in the office and the environment, but I guess it's time to move on. I'm really scared and nervous about it, but yeah, I imagine things will be a little better once I find a place to live or a job (or, preferably, both). And the above image is the note I placed on the copying machine when it broke the previous week. Forget my bookkeeping skills -- it's my humor that the department is really going to miss! Or not... 😉

And oh yeah, my cell phone came today and I'll be setting that up tonight before I leave, so if you'd like to be added to my contact list -- especially if you live in the NYC area and want to catch up with me tomorrow or Friday! -- e-mail me your number if you haven't already done so (or if you want to do so again). That e-mail will also let me know that you're interested in having my number, so I'll send it to you.

And one more pic before we go -- for some reason I think Tara is really hot. I can't explain it! Maybe it's because she more/less occupies the Miss Yvonne role on CN's Cartoon Fridays sketches in that she's the female lead. Dixie was way more attractive than Miss Yvonne, though. Hell, she even played the trumpet!

Okay, I've really gotta go now. Ja ne, minna-san -- hopefully I'll survive the trip and have good or at least interesting news to share on Saturday.

Oh yeah, and speaking of good news, I won $100 playing Sudoku in the Washington Post Express! So that's two mentions I've gotten in that paper within the span of a week. The $100 is already gone and then some -- I had to buy ink for the printer to print out these bloody resumes and book bus tickets and hotel rooms and whatnot -- but still, every little bit helps.

Bye!