Job hunting and such

Hi all,

These days Miri and I are diligently looking for jobs that we can get in the same city. We know that this city won't be Spokane because the management of the zoo there is good at taking care of cats, but they're not so good at taking care of their humans. (And, there are a couple of 500-pound cats who seem to think I am a giraffe. I get the heebie-jeebies sometimes.)

Miri's internship at the zoo is winding down. She graduates in September, so, we're looking at jobs all over the country in places such as Las Vegas, Boston, Baltimore, West Yellowstone, Mont., and Garden City, Kan. Yes, there really is a zoo in Garden City. I don't know if Las Vegas has a zoo, but they do have Seigfried and Roy (and the tiger that tried to eat Roy Horn is still happily living there but we won't go in to that). Cool thing about working for Seigfried and Roy is if you're employed by them, you're employed by the Mirage, a big resort that actually pays benefits and stuff.

I am working in my job at the non-profit that is too quirky to be described. I am also teaching classes at our summer journalism institute for teenagers, giving talks on ethics and writing. Yesterday, we talked about adjectives, and how you have to be careful with your judgmental adjectives, such as "horrifying" or "every mother's worst nightmare." I made them listen to Alice's Restaurant and asked them why there was so much useless detail in the song, such as "implements of destruction" and "twenty-seven eight by ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back..." (Because there's so much useless detail in the draft.)

I am getting ready to do the Ride Around Washington at the beginning of August. This will be a fun spin around the volcanoes of southwest Washington. These rides are always 6 days long and take up around 80 miles. I have composed a limerick about the people who do the daily ride announcements:

Never make a promise that's impossible to fulfill
The war will be short, you can cure anything with this pill
The harm from the worst promise of all never mends
Rather, you'll lose 200 friends
It is to say, "Today's route is mostly downhill."

Usually when I make updates about what's going on in my life, I have some quirky, humorous story to tell like 6-year-old children lecturing me on the importance of paying attention. But alas, I don't this time. (Life is a little dull.) I have, however, been reading an assortment of library books that I can tell you about:

• Surprised by Hope, by N.T. Wright. I found out about this book by watching an episode of the Colbert Report that also featured Cookie Monster. Bishop Wright, an Anglican Bishop, was there, too. This book takes a look at popular religion seen through funeral sermons and tries to connect that way of thinking back to the real teachings about the Resurrection. I've only gotten to chapter 3, but I am enjoying it so far.
• Bottomfeeder, by Taras Grescoe. This book tries to take on the whole ocean at once as an ecosystem which can provide us with excellent protein. He talks about oysters in Chesapeake Bay, the monkfish, the bluefin tuna and salmon. His argument is that we should try eating from the middle of the ocean's food chain, with fish like sardines and anchovies, because they're not endangered. The section on shrimp farms was really gross.

Okay, that's only two books, but the other ones I've been reading are mostly cookbooks, or I just tossed them aside after the first chapter. But, there was this one article called "No," in the Kenyon Review about writers receiving rejection letters. Here's a link to it. It made me laugh, especially as I keep getting rejected, too. My wife tells me I ought to be a famous writer like J.K. Rowling, that way we can live someplace like West Yellowstone and I won't have to find a job driving a tour bus. But, I don't get discouraged -- persistence does pay off, as lots of asking did get Miri to marry me. Oh yeah, if you want to read some humor articles about Christians getting married, you can go to this blog, Orthromance, that I started.

Anyway, that's the news from Spokane. I'd love to hear from you!

Thomas / Eric / Thomic

p.s. A hysterical political video came out today on jibjab.com It's done to the tune of "The times they are a changing" The Obama section had me on the floor.