Today, I want to be that guy who cuts movie trailers

My friends and I went to see Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay last night and watching the trailers for, among other things, The Dark Knight and it reminded me of a somewhat overarching desire to work on movies. An ideal job, I would think, at least assuming I had any background in video editing or any such field, would be making movie trailers. I'd get to see the movie before almost anyone else (and maybe become the new aXXo) and I'd know that my handiwork was being seen by tonnes of people. On the other hand, I think I couldn't say 'no thanks, I don't like scary movies,' and not be asked to do the trailer for, say, Saw k. A shame really.

Today, I want to be a stand-up philospher

From History of the World, Part I
Dole Office Clerk: Occupation?
Comicus: Stand-up philosopher.
Dole Office Clerk: What?
Comicus: Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension.
Dole Office Clerk: Oh, a bullshitter!
Comicus: Hmmmmmm...
Dole Office Clerk: Did you bullshit last week?
Comicus: No.
Dole Office Clerk: Did you try to bullshit last week?
Comicus: Yes!

I was bored yesterday having finally finished most of the things I had been putting off. My term paper is done and is getting handed in today, hopefully my professor likes it enough to give me an A. As I was wandering around after running a couple of errand I realized that it would be nice if, as in Greek times, people could essentially beg by way of philosophizing in the public square. I doubt that any sort of meaningful living could be made in this fashion. Taking myself as paradigmatic, which I know I'm not, if I saw someone talking to no one in particular I would probably make a concerted effort to be just within earshot for a moment but come no closer. Regrettable, it would be nice to pass an afternoon essentially playing a talking head for as much my own benefit as anyone else's. I suppose it's all for the better that I can't, I'd probably just end up in an endless series of arguments with the hoi polloi.

Today, I want to be a wage-slave

I am presently procrastinating from trying to write the last couple of pages of a term paper. The presentation upon which the paper is based happened about two months ago so it's getting fuzzy and these last couple of pages are going to be a royal pain. After that I have to prepare a study guide for an exam I have to take on my birthday. We are displeased.

Sometimes, albeit rarely, I wish I could just get up in the morning, go to work and come home and not have to worry about homework, exams, papers or readings. I snap out of it when I get to sleep a couple of hours later than my roommate. Hopefully this is just me wanting to have summer holiday and not have to worry about homework et al for a few months. I also am coming to the realization that my projected path will never free me of homework. I'm going to have to plan lectures, write exams then grade them and papers and-beyond all that-conduct my own research. What the hell am I thinking?

Until next time.

Today, I want to be EMT Certified

As mentioned in my inaugural post, I am reading Blood, Sweat and Tea which is essentially a bunch of blog post from a gentleman who works for the London Ambulance Service turned into a book. I have looked at getting an EMT-B certification before but a couple of things are holding me back. First and foremost, it's time and money I don't have. Second, I don't know that I'd do so hot with the blood, gore and (I have learned from Blood, Sweat and Tea) the prodigious amounts of urine and vomit that EMTs get to deal with. Third, I don't really want to be an EMT qua job but I want to be able to help someone if he or she drops in front of me. Maybe this is my hero complex but it would be nice to know that I could help save someone's life if I had to.

I could do it, there's a 7 credit class at a local community college this summer but it would be a tonne of money and a bunch of time that both need to be spent paying my rent and feeding myself. As I find myself saying increasingly often, maybe next year/time/month/week. Maybe I could get some (or hopefully most) of the information from a book, this warrants examination...

Until next time.

Today, I want to be a blogger

Today, I have decided to start blogging. There are three primary reasons for this. Firstly, I have work I should be doing but I have put off by every other means I can think of. Secondly, I am reading Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds who writes Random Acts of Reality. Finally, I change my mind every few days what I want to be when I grow up, even as I sit in classes propelling me towards a Ph.D I can't decide if I really want. Maybe by doing this, I will get my head straight enough to either realized that teaching and academia are what I really want or find what it is that will truly make me happy (vis-à-vis a job, I can think of a dozen things off hand that would make me happy but none of them have the minutest thing to do with a job in any conventional sense of the word).

I suppose I ought to explain what the 'this' is; I plan to write every few days with my career of the day and explain why it sounds appealing to me. I probably will not limit myself to jobs &c, for example I would be delighted to wake up to find myself Cory Doctorow. I can imagine a Kafkaesque story beginning 'As J.C. awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a science fiction writing, blogging alternative copyright activist and promoter.' And that, as they say, is that.

Until next time.