Employment Bonus

I’ve seen quite a bit going around lately not about people finding creative ways to get hired, but about using innovation to quit. Yesterday a Jet Blue flight attendant exited an argument with a passenger by using the safety evacuation slides. Needless to say, he won’t be coming back to work.

Today I saw a brilliant slideshow that a young assistant sent around to her office to quit:

Thanks to TheChive.com, the whole world can see Jenny’s witty quitting display of slides, proving her dedication to her job for over two years until her discourteous boss gave her thelast straw:

Then Jenny dutifully reminds us all that even the boss can have his or her own plans to increase productivity backfire: her boxx spent 19.7 hours a week playing Farmville as recorded by the office snitch program installed to monitor internet use.

While the last few years have definitely not been the best economically, for job seekers, or for homeowners, this is a great reminder to remember that a job is much more than just a job. The biggest difference between employees today and of previous generations, is we believe a job is something you should enjoy doing. You don’t work just to work – you shouldn’t suffer through the 40 hours a week you spend earning your living. And just like Jenny, you certainly shouldn’t put up with office abuse from your supervisors.

So thanks Jenny for giving us a reminder of what our generation stands for: living life to the fullest in every aspect.

Cheers,

Jenna Kate

Romance Novels

Romance novels are a fantastic invention. Lately there has been a bit of chatter around CNN about why they’re so popular, and why women prefer their britches and boots wearing, gun handling, broody but first to arrive on the scene to help heroes to their real-life male counterparts. Plus these pocketbook paperbacks make great travel buddies. One romance novel made it through 6 of my friends on Spring Break senior year at Elon.

Today’s article is aptly about the release of the third installment of the Twilight series, Eclipse. While I won’t ever be a ‘Twihard,’ I’ll never read the books, there is something compelling and mystifying about such a strong love between this awkward teenage girl and her damned soul-mate. I’ll be interested to see how this half-vampire child issue works out in the final film…

Here are the stories that have shown up lately. Any thoughts?

I Write Romance Novels…So What? CNN, 5/10/2010

A Romantic Hero Wouldn’t Do That CNN, 5/31/2010

Why Women Find Vampires Hot CNN, 6/30/2010

Photo Source.

New Years

Happy New Year! I’m quite glad to be in 2010, a year that will definitely bring more change than even 2009 (who knew a year could be more packed than graduating college and moving to a foreign country!). A lot has happened since Christmas. I experienced my first Boxing Day, something I think we should adopt along with Guy Fawkes night in the US, and Paihia has started to fill up with families on school holidays and tourists escaping Northern winters and Australian summer. There was a cute fireworks display in the bay which sounds exactly as romantic as it was, minis the moon successfully outshining any of the colors. You can see the boats lit up and the waves on the beach, how cool!

Poli then decided that, since it was still 2010 in America, we were going to ring my mum at 1am our time, 7am New Years Eve hers. She was classy and giggled the whole time, glad to have “made his night” talking to America. Here he is with mum on the other end.

I’ve also been reading some great books to help me fall asleep at night after another busy day at the restaurant. Martin Calder’s A Summer in Gascony was a great peek into life into d’Artagnan’s home province. Another travel book, Postcards from Elsewhere by Kiwi Graham Reid wasn’t engaging enough for me to get through the Louisiana swampland. My favorite was definitely Diplomatic Baggage, Brigid Keenan’s adventures as a diplomats wife displayed with that dry British humor I never knew I enjoyed (probably because I hadn’t thought much about the hometowns of authors and entertainers I like). If you are thirsty for some international exploits of your own, try to hunt down a copy of this book. She brings the most remote places to life and you almost want to move to Kyrgyzstan too.

While I put some travel reading on hold, I sped through Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, a Christmas gift from Bronson and picked up Jodi Picoult’s Mercy, which my roommate brought home from work. DB does little to bore you with his 500+ page novel, and the over 130 chapters keep you engaged and intrigued because the point of view changes so rapidly. Picoult’s novel was her first that I’ve read, and while I picked it up to read the summary on the cover, I quickly ended up three chapters in before I knew it. Another must read, though the girls will probably appreciate her insights on relationships the most. Sorry boys, we will never stop analyzing your dramas and moments.

I’ve also taken some time to plan out a career list. Part of coming here was to sort out some of the bits of life that I would have otherwise happily ignored. While it might not be poetic, I thought it would be a good way to start the new year and have some goals to look for as I start job hunting back home:
1. Something publishing/writing related, perhaps editorial or photography as well
2. Travel and lifestyle subject areas (I’ve become obsessed with the non-fashion related sections of magazines here, clipping out recipes and saving tips)
3. Mixed media for sure, I love flipping and clipping, but clicking and tweeting can be fun too
4. Perhaps a stint in the baking/chocolate world to kill my incestuous sweet tooth for good, or just get more creative about satisfying it
5. Something with free time for sailing, if not potentially sailing related
6. Some opportunity to give back through non-profit work, working with kids, either professionally or volunteering

Hopefully 2010 can bring something off this list to life. Otherwise, I better start working on my novel. I’ll need to make Oprah’s book club list before she goes off the air next year. Happy new year!

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I shamelessly finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s #1 best-seller Eat Pray Love at 1am last night.  Yes, I spent a Friday night with a book about a 34-year-old in an existential mid-life crisis instead of at a  fancy club downtown with my best friend Alana and her new Swiss roommate Alex.  My sorority sister Brittany suggested it, as she is on her own one year voyage through Australia and knows I am getting ready to come join her down under.

First let me say this is not a boy book.  Boys, don’t even think about it.  The first sentence talks about Ms. Gilbert’s desire to kiss a gorgeous Italian man 10 years her junior.  You will not enjoy this book.  Ladies, if you want him to read it, bookmark the important pages that you think may but actually may not completely apply to your romantic and emotional situation.  At least that was my first temptation.  Sometimes, there are things that a woman does not need to share with the man in her life.  How this book applies falls into this category.

Ms. Gilbert’s wit certainly shines through this emotional and revealing memoir, and I found myself actually chuckling at her anecdotes and internal monologues, so hopefully you will too.  This is definitely a book to read while laying on the beach, if possible, or in another warm, sunny, cheerful environment.  Ms. Gilbert’s journey through a self-inflicted life rehab is strange and a bit questionable.  Since I personally have never seen my soul, I cannot say whether it actually is a cool blue light as she describes seeing on the roof of her Ashram in India.

The three sections of this book represent each of her locales: Italy, India and Indonesia (Bali).  By far Italy was the most enjoyable.  This section could easily be siphoned off into a novella of its own.   Ms. Gilbert’s relationships in Italy are intriguing and deserve more exploration, which she denies them because of the structure of her piece and her control to devote equal time to each part of her journey.  However for a woman recovering from a disastrous divorce and equally corrupt relationship with a boyfriend, she certainly attaches herself to men quickly: whether it is her young Italian speech partner, Richard from Texas offering her advice, or the delicious Felipe from Brazil.  But I guess crossing the world gets lonely, so you can’t really blame her.

Structurally, the 108 sections were an interesting format based on the japa mala, the original rosary which the Catholics borrowed from Hindus and Buddhists in India.  Somehow, she intermingles stories of her past life well, with few interruptions from the recent past and even more sparse are the reminiscences back to childhood.  I was slightly less interested in her metaphysical experiences in India, but appreciated her overall approach to try to show travel as a process working with for or against your soul.

Overall, I enjoyed reading and was glad Indonesia was less spiritual and more back on the travel wave length. Definitely recommend.

A Writer’s Paris by Eric Maisel

Paris is probably the one place on earth where, if you were to mention the name, someone would start salivating with the desire to go there.  The city of romance has drawn artsy types (I’ll include myself in this category) for centuries.  I figured this book would be a great way to get a plan of attack for handling a place that is built up by, well every artist ever, and not be disappointed.

Well, after wading through almost all of it, I have to say I wish I’d written down all the people and places I’ve come across.  This little book is definitely designed for the aspiring writer.  Cassie, consider it for senior seminar next year?  Maisel spends 34 ‘chapters’ discussing the various artistic and elegant qualities that every writer should experience while living in Paris.  And I would suggest reading with a pen and paper in hand; make one list of parks, one of places, and one of people.  The cultural and intellectual history of modern France is slowly squeezed through the encouragement (13 Three Week Books, 22 Ideas For A Novel) that every writer needs, but even now hunting through the anecdotes and advice I cannot find  the name of that little rooftop park I read about yesterday. (It is in the 12th arrondissement, the Bois de Vincennes, and called the Promenade Plantée.)

Several of the chapters also discuss making the financial aspects of living in Paris a possibility: 16 The Doable Dream (housing suggestions), as well as all of the appendix sections are helpful, even though the information may be a few years outdated.  But the thing that struck me the most is the idea of doing nothing, enjoying the nontraditional aspects of Paris.

Maisel deified the city’s many parks, showing the reader a few of the important ones as well as several off the beaten track.  19 Gay Mayors discusses the famous Delanoë,  mayor of Paris who made it again legal to (gasp!) sit on the lawns of Paris.

Maisel does very little organization for someone actually hoping to experience tourist Paris on purpose, as 7 Hemingway Slept Here points out: be less tourist, more artist.  The point is going there to write, to live in the shadow of the greatest minds of all time and force yourself into a miniature apartment and out onto paper.  If you’re not big on writing, don’t necessarily skip those chapters.  You may miss out on the Buddhist idea of monkey mind, a common cognitive state of mental chatter and clutter which can impede your enjoyment of Paris, the Musée du Vieux Monmartre or the advice to find your own local café instead of spending all day tracking the haunts of long-dead intellectuals.

There certainly is a therapeutic aspect of this book that was interestingly enough, calming about my own trip to New Zealand.  Anyone embarking on a longer trip should at least skim through this volume if only for its tips of surviving apartments that your pocket can afford but perhaps your sanity cannot (perhaps use some pillows  and candles to make the bathtub into a couch).  Bunker in for the lectures about how often you should write by substituting it for some other pleasure like trying new foods, learning the language or exploring a different bus route.  When I get my list of artists to read, view, and study in each of the Parisian parks I am to explore, I’ll let you know.  Still wading through the morale boosting chapters at the end. (Yes, I know venturing off on my own is ludicrous, but I’m going anyway.  Just not Paris until the Spring with my mother.)

So if Maisel suggests that his first thoughts upon entering Paris are Where do I want to write, then what do I want my first thought to be when I wake up in a new place?  For me I think it would be Where can I get a good view?

What would you do first?