balcony view from our apartment in Montparnasse
No Giving Up!
Girls Are Pretty has a great story to continue in the vein of yesterday's post:
When you send out the updated list of office practices and regulations, your staff will be startled to find there in the middle of the list, just below, "No jeans or flip flops" and above, "No mugs with 'slogans' other than our company logo and slogan,'" you've added:Click that link to find out what happens next! Law students in particular should be curious to learn the fate of Marcus at the end of the post.
No Giving Up On Your Dreams And Settling For Your Current Job Because It's Convenient To Do So
Sui Generis makes like a tree
France photos to come (soon I hope), but first, a major announcement. I quit my job tomorrow. I have no other job prospect. For a variety of reasons, I just couldn't stand to stay with that company any longer. I won't say any more, because the Internets are devious and not to be trusted. Suffice it to say that in two weeks or less, this blog may be very much about Sui Generis' Adventures in Unemployment!
Hopefully I'll find something before then and make a swift segue into my next career. Any twin cities peeps with job hookups, I would so love to talk with you. Or if you could get me in somewhere, say, on the West Coast, or in Boulder, or anywhere awesome, really, that would be nice. I do have skills. I do not have a long-term plan that dictates what I should do next, at this point, so any leads are welcome.
Thanks, and as ever, stay tuned.
Categories: work
Bonjusof!
\\\\\\These keyboqrd qre crqwy retqrded(((
hello friend? This is the Sui Generis in the Paris town using his crazy hunt:&peck skillz to bring you a blog post on limited internet time. I,m not so much looking at the screen as i type; so this is the best i can do: today is the last full day for me & j in this country & then we comin home: so ill have lots of photos to share witchall when i get bak at my own conpuuta;
so paris is fun, we drank lots of wine & ate crepes & stuff; !§§
€-600
un, we also travelled out of paris into burgandy, normandy & champagne for more adventiure!! vegetarian restaurants are rare; all the escalators broke; i like the cheap wine optioons!! wine is cheaper than pop; isn;t that nice!
so, i will be bqc w/ the full story when i return & get q better keyboard, almost used up my internet time here§ù*$^¨ççççç
laters
Bon anniversaire!
This blog will be one year old as of September 22. I'm posting the blogiversary wrapup now since I'll be in France for the next two weeks and I'll just want to post photos when I get back. So here's something for you to read while I'm gone.
This blog has come a long way in one year! Don't go back and read my first post, it's stupid. In fact, don't bother reading any of my old posts. I can't find any good ones, they're all crap. Here's a better idea: instead of a clips show, I'll do an original year-end flashback episode. Fasten your seatbelts kiddies, now it is beginning of a fantastic story!!
When I started this blog, I was all about law school. I was a year or two out of college and contemplating a serious career change. I had also just gotten married! It was an exciting time, full of hope and promise for the future. I had taken the LSAT and gotten a decent score, so I spent most of my time wrestling with LSAC and winnowing down my choices of schools to send applications at.
I started trying to post photos regularly in my second month of blogging, which I kept up more or less regularly for a while. Then I ran out of cool photos. It's a habit I'd like to get back into, but I'm not rocking the camera as much as I did back in the day.
Meanwhile, I was scrabbling together application materials and writing a personal statement that turned out very poorly after lots of work. I sent it anyway. LSAC got my transcript, I finished my stuff, and applications started going out. Along with autumn came the insidious NaNaWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. Spurred on by AmbImb's example, I declared my intention to compose a 50,000 word novel in one month. I did it in two weeks.
I kept on writing at it for the next few months, ending up with around 70-80,000 words all told, but I was never fully satisfied with the manuscript. Currently I plan to trash it and start over with a complete rewrite, but I've got other writing projects in the pipeline as well, and I'm focusing on those for now. Maybe I'll take up my original book again for this year's WriMo.
With my writing goals met halfway through November, I switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout. I started to question my decision to go to law school. I drank wine and wrote some wine reviews. In early December, I was seeing reports of acceptance for other 0L bloggers, and the seeds of doubt were planted. Mailbox fear set in. The next several months brought on a flurry of deferrals, waitlists, and rejections, and law school slowly faded away.
I had a delightful first Christmas with my new family and a happy New Year. All I wanted to blog about was writing, but that wasn't interesting to anyone except me, so I started writing book reviews instead. They weren't very good, either. I didn't have anything to say about law school except that the waiting was driving me mad, but at least those posts seemed to garner lots of encouraging responses.
I took an unlikely trip to the Bahamas for a week in February. While we were there, I read most of Infinite Jest, which is awesome, and which wins the Sui Generis Book of the Year Award.
March was all about blog interactivity. I kicked it off with an all-request day and found that I can write a lot more and better in response to a question than off the top of my head. I recorded a podcast with AmbImb, some people liked that. I posted about the Million Writers Award and heard back from a few of the authors whose work I enjoyed. This was unexpected and wonderful. Thus began my foray into litblogging. All the excitement inspired me to write my own short story, which sucked, although everyone was kind enough not to say so.
I played a mean April Fool's Day joke by pretending that I got into law school. I guess the joke was on me, huh? (Because I didn't.) J got a job doing what she went to school for, and so then we were both working full time. For the conclusion of my law school application efforts, I interviewed with the dean at my local school and attended a class.
I gave up on law school after that, but we did win a TV. I started to reevaluate my plans for the future. With my standing in the legal profession no longer a concern, I dropped my cautious anonymity about topics such as tattoos that I might have. I got involved with a lot of volunteer events through my company. I bought my bicycle and started to ride, and we adopted our little Pug, Lola. We moved into a rental house in St. Paul and I commuted by bike. Life was good.
In June I was still trying to bring up law school every now and then, but it was no use. All I did anymore was ride my bicycle. I officially gave up on law school and gave in to the fact that my content had changed. I was writing about writing, life and career choices, dogs and bicycles, but the law school dream had died. A redesign was in order!
The new bicycle focus gave me plenty to blog about. I was out of steam on the topic of law school, but I was still officially waitlisted at two places. Halfway through August, I was effectively released from both waitlists on the same day, thus ending my law school dreams forever! With that settled, I turned all my attention to Plan B. J and I were both unhappy at our jobs and it was time for a change. What would we do next?
But first an intermission--my grandpa died last week and we scheduled the wake & funeral w/ just enough time to have them before J & I left for France. So that cut into our planning & packing times and we're rushed now. It's been crazy. Well, time to go to Paris. Come back on the 19th or 20th for photos galore. Catch you on the flip side!
Strong as Ten Regular Men
This morning, it was the soundtrack to Disney's Aladdin. I faced the galloping hordes, a hundred bad guys with Fords, and nearly got trampled twice. But, I made it in safely. Don't worry drivers, keep trying to run me over and I'm sure you'll get me some day, but not today!
On a totally different topic, I wonder who reads this site anymore. I used to have a stat counter but then I lost the password and gave up on it because I checked it obsessively and the low numbers depressed me. Lately I've been feeling altogether too good about myself, so it's time to recommence quantitatively measuring my value as a human being! See you in the visitors summary page!
Busy, busy, busy
I was given an unsolicited lesson on how to floss at the dentist's office today. I'm twenty-four years old, for crying out loud. Look, I don't always floss daily, but it's not because I don't know how. My mistake was admitting it. Next time I'm asked, I'll just say, "twice a day plus mealtimes!"
Meanwhile, at work, layoffs were happening! Unfortunately I was not among those chosen to receive a generous severance package and must continue to work for my money. At least we got that out of the way before I left on vacation. We will see what happens when I return.
Tonight, boxing up 3-speeds for shipping to eBay auction winners!
In treble and bass we trust
I always have the radio on when I'm driving, so the silence of bicycle commuting took some getting used to. Now that I'm comfortable in the saddle and my mind can drift a little, I find that songs pop into my head every time I ride. A startling variety of music, at that. Punk, metal, and hip-hop songs are the most common, though; something about riding a bike must bring those genres to the forefront of my mind.
J thought it was weird, so I wondered if any other bike riders have experienced this phenomenon. Tell me, fellow cyclers, am I the only one? Or do beats and lyrics appear unsolicited in your head when you're biking around town? What's your bicycle soundtrack?
Categories: bicycles
Sweet dreams
I was sleep-blogging last night. I came up with a great post idea, just as I was drifting off to sleepy land, and mentally wrote out to two paragraphs. Now, I can't remember what it was about. While my head was stewing in creative juices last night, there's just nothing there this morning. I should have written it down.
Actually, I do all my best creative work at night. When I've got a novel in my head especially I can't help but brainstorm on it as I lie in bed. The problem is that once I get up, turn on the light, and start writing in my notebook, I'm not getting back to sleep for a long time.
I don't like losing material, but I also don't like losing sleep. During last year's NaNoWriMo, I did all my writing late at night and it killed my schedule for getting any work done before noon at my day job. What's an aspiring writer to do? If I ever hit it big as a novelist and make writing my full time job, I'll be going totally nocturnal.
Categories: writing
Feel that way mood h4xx0r3d
I'm feeling a real kinship lately with some of the bike bloggers I read on a regular basis. A Flower Called Nowhere has a recent post that hit close to home. Annie and I both, it turns out, hate the State Fair, Applebee's, and Woodbury, MN. Sascha is anti-wallpaper and pro-paint, and writes about something that I've been longing for lately: a place to call home.
Then, of course, there are bloggers with whom I have real-life collaboration. This guy is heading up a small team of volunteers, including me, who will be keeping the Sibley Bike Depot open for one additional night every week. It's going to be great for the shop to stay accessible and give us extra time to do the odd jobs that need to be done.
On that note, I was excited this morning to see that there are bids on all four of the 3-speed bicycles I posted on eBay! But with good news comes bad: the shop's website, bikeped.org, has apparently been hacked. Crap.
Overheard by the coffee pots this morning
"Did you do anything fun this weekend?"
"I went to the State Fair!"
"The State Fair? I asked if you did anything fun."
Literary Paris
Since I can't learn French fast enough to be any good while I'm there, I figured that I might as well read books about France. Maybe I can learn something about it and get into a Parisian frame of mind. Books by the French, American expatriots, or others who lived there are all up for grabs. I've recently read:
Debord's The Society of the Spectacle
Camus' The Plague
Kerouac's Satori in Paris
Réage's Story of O
and a bunch of Hemingway and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.
Tentatively on the to-be-read-if-I-have-time pile:
Orwell's Down and Out in Paris
Balzac's Wrong Side of Paris
Baudrillard's The Illusion of the End
Thompson's Carnet de Voyage
Got any recommendations for reading material that should be on this list? Some books that I want to read have already been pushed back, like Sartre's Being and Nothingness. Don't be afraid to make my wishlist unwieldy. If I don't read it before going to France, I'll probably read it afterwards, so fire away!
Categories: books
Après le déluge
It was worth the price of gas to drive into work this morning. Rain was dumping down--I got wet just looking at it. The tires of my car were sinking in the mud and so did my shoes when I ran out to it, but I was drenched anyway. The thunder and lightning was incredible. One of the brightest and loudest I've ever seen/heard struck while J and I were still in bed. J and Lola both jumped.
The storm was great. I knew I couldn't bike twelve miles in it, so I sat around and played on the computer for a while and waited for it to calm down (it didn't). I love being inside during thunderstorms, watching the flashes of light, listening to the loud cracks and rumbles outside. The rain clobbering our roof and windows. I didn't want to go anywhere.
Now I'm at work and just blah. Maybe the storm will still be going when I get home!
Bicycles for sale
Four bike auctions on ebay! I am trying to help the Sibley Bike Depot reduce their excess inventory by selling some vintage English 3-speeds. I rode down to the shop last night to get set up with an official email address and PayPal account information, and after an hour of fiddling around with ebay and image hosting, I was in business. You can see them if you want. Buy one yourself, or tell your friends!
Here is one of them, a 1964 Raleigh Sports:
I am sure you will be filled with regret for all your years unless you also look at all of the others!
Categories: bicycles
An anniversary fit for a king!
J and I had a great romantic first anniversary night at Millenium Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The hotel is on the south end of Nicollet Mall and we had a great view for watching the pretty track bikes and fixies roll on by.
We had dinner at King and I Thai right around the corner. J ordered the fried rice and I ordered the Pad Thai, both with mock duck. Our server took the order quickly, got us water, and the food came out really fast. After that, he was not very good at stopping by to pick up our food and bring a bill, although he was very attentive to the two cute tattooed girls who were seated at the table across from us!
I wanted authentic Thai taste, so I requested my Pad Thai to be made 'spicy' (3 on a scale of 4, between 'medium' and 'Thai spicy'). It was too spicy for my bland Midwestern palate to handle, but it was so good that I kept eating it, even though I couldn't breathe very well or see through my tears. Eventually, J made me give up on my meal and I finished off her fried rice.
Back at the hotel we took a bath, drank champagne, went to bed early and slept in. It was my best anniversary ever! (And I do recommend King and I for the food, but the service was spotty--as I had been warned in advance of our visit).
Vélo'v: bicycle P2P
There's an article at Wired about a new short-term bicycle rental system in France. I found it timely because a group from Duluth recently visited St. Paul and asked the Minnesota Bicycle-Pedestrian Alliance for assistance with a similar (but lower-tech and smaller scale) bike sharing project.
As the Wired article notes, these free lending systems must rely on the basic goodness of the human race in order to succeed, which is why they almost invariably fail. Nonprofits run out of money. Bicycles are stolen or intentionally destroyed.
The program in Lyon, a "P2P network for bikes," aims to circumvent these issues by means of credit card deposits, alarms, and microchips. Many people are curious to see whether they will succeed. The network analogy is an interesting one, because it brings to mind a fundamental axiom of computing: no matter how secure you try to make the system, someone will find a way to hack it.
Categories: bicycles
The Corrections*
*Disclaimer: this post isn't really about bikes, or the Jonathan Franzen novel.
After cursing at my rear dérailleur for weeks, I finally fixed it yesterday. I went to Sheldon Brown's site, read a few paragraphs about index shifting, and turned my adjusting barrel one click clockwise. Now the bike shifts perfectly. I wonder why I waited so long to do something about it. All of my recent drivetrain woes could have been avoided by making this simple adjustment two months ago!
How many things in our lives are going awry, and yet for some reason or another, we don't do anything about it? How many of our ongoing problems could be solved with a simple fix, if only we would take the time to do something about it, instead of just complaining about it?
I think of friendships that slipped away because I didn't make a phone call or write a letter -- jobs I hate but stay in because I am too lazy to apply for a new one -- opportunities lost because I procrastinated and missed a deadline -- what's the deal? Is it just me or is this another human condition thing? I resolve from here on out to increase my awareness of easy solutions to my "difficult" problems and do what I can right now to improve my life.
Categories: life, bicycles
A few of my favorite things (AM commute)
Riding through a cloud, with the atmospheric moisture flecking my glasses and cooling my face -- the alarm clock going off every morning that I can hear for the length of an entire city block -- the soft thick shroud of fog floating over Forest Cemetary -- feeling fasting and tougher than I did yesterday or the day before that -- taking undiscovered winding shortcuts through parks thick with trees and dead with silence -- racing through lights with traffic on the last half-mile -- parking my bike by the door and knowing that I get to do it all over again in eight and a half hours.
Categories: life, bicycles
desk job doldrums
I need to quit my job. I can't quit my job.
Just finished a cover letter, resume and writing sample package. Maybe this will be the magic bullet that gets me out of this dead-end nerve-wracking soul-crushing place. I'm going to bed now. Forecast for tomorrow: "dangerous afternoon t-storm." Sounds like great biking weather.
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