And Now, Time for a Change of Hemispheres

The tailored hippie within. Documentary evidence that I have ever worn a suit n' tie.
Two interpretations: “peace” or I imagine it must be a rude gesture in some cultures (guess I better find that out...before my first comic faux-pas).

The interview went well, and was actually enjoyable. The interviewer was very nice, and she had some posters from her tenure in Romania of the “Romanian Elvis“ that were amusing.

It sounds like I will be nominated to Latin America, with a start date of next January. There's still not a 100% certainty of an assignment or that it won't change to another region or later time, but it's one necessary hurdle. Shout out to my recommenders for “representin'!” I appreciate it. My summer travel plans are probably going to change to another continent if I will be spending 27 months somewhere in Latin America. Ah, smiley-time!

La Entrevista

I probably should have revised my top ten list a few times to increase the concentration of funny, but there's no time for perfection. It kills me how much of my brain has been colonized by popular culture and advertising. I'm reduced to Jay Leno level material or worse.

I have my interview tomorrow afternoon, and I'm trying to prep or at the very least stay tranquilo. It should be interesting to see what happens. If I'm nominated by the recruiter, then the final possible hurdle will be any med exams I will need. Qué será, será.

Not much else to report:
-I've gone three times to Six Flags this season, and rode on the major rides, so now my brain craves new roller coasters. -Gotta get going to the mountains more on the weekends. Rafting on the Arkansas...soon.-My plans to go to Honduras are up in the air, but I do think I will go somewhere for a few months in Latin America.
-Books read lately: Freakonomics, So you want to join the Peace Corps.

The Top Ten Reasons I’m Joining the Peace Corps

10) If I overhear “I want a Venti double-mocha non-fat extra whip” one more time, I’m going to have a Grande, double-pissed-off, hyper-caffeinated meltdown.


9) The two-cent dialogue of the final episode of Star Wars ignited the desire in me to go to the closest thing to a galaxy, far, far away from two-hundred million dollar productions whose screen play is best explained as being written by Jar Jar Binks on smack. If it wins an Academy award, I’m seriously going to start doubting the power of good side of the Force.

8) I’m just not McLovin’ it.

7) Tivo’s got it covered baby. Oh yeah. God bless Taiwan.

6) Dunno. Never hurts to know another language to whisper sweet nothings into a woman’s ear. Or to say, “hey, get me another cerveza, the game is on! Burp.“


5) I can handle having no running water. It’s an inconvenient waste of time to shower every day anyway. (So, I would move to France but for my inveterate hatred of berets, mimes, and Cirque du Soleil weirdness. Okay, I’m the stereotypical, geographically-inept American -- Cirque du Soleil is from Quebec, but what’s the diff?)

4) I’m just not that bright. I’m willing to eat fine delicacies whether they are cow eyeballs or grubs, and I’m willing to suffer exposure to every sort of science fiction -sized insect or arachnid for free, when I could win $50,000 dollars if I just did the exact same thing on “Fear Factor.”

3) I want to live simpler. To live closer to the land. To leave a smaller ecological footprint. To be in tune with the cycles of nature, sunrise and sunset, and not the hands of a clock. Nevertheless, if I ever have a rooster wake me up at four in the morning again, let’s just say I will be introducing Chik-Fil-A chicken biscuits to my host country pronto.

2) I watched the old Coca-Cola commercial “I’d like to teach the world to sing (in perfect harmony)” so many times, the only way I can figure to get the jingle out of my head is to finally go do something to make the world go sing in perfect harmony. Or at least make the world sing better than William Hung and most the rest of the wannabes on American Idol.

1) I figure if it’s the hardest job I’ll ever love, the rest of my career will be a cake walk. Or at the very least, I will have an excuse to break the mold in the name of diversity…”Oh, sorry I would follow company policy and wear a suit and tie, but I have to commune with the spirits to propitiate the 4th Quarter earnings gods and eat these magic mushrooms like I used to in [insert name of obscure country here].”

Vuelta a la rutina.... por lo menos el verano se acerca....

I hear you folks. The misadventures and adventures of Daniel have quieted as of late. Somehow, even with my mad prose skills I can't inject drama into the commute, the coding, the hollow pursuit of the next caffeine fix from Harbucks to Harbucks. Hark! Where has this la vida loca gone, where now there is only la vida cotidiana (quotidian)?

Hear me world, tomorrow I shall climb mountains! Okay, in actuality, I shall climb rock walls, but doing so with the imagination of Walter Mitty better befits my budget and pitiful fear tolerance. I think I'm going to continue to make it a point to try something new every other month, to ce la vie to ennui. I guess the theme for this National “Daniel Avoid Dying of Boredom” month is Spiderman....Let me know if anyone has suggestions for the next theme. I'm thinking it's going to be “get of your arse and submit some articles“ next month (which hopefully I can link to from this blog).

We just got some season passes to Six Flags, so luckily there will be some more fun before the next trip abroad. I've got to do some more research and get the tickets this week, but it will be Honduras this July -- scuba diving and more Spanish classes. I'm hoping it's like the brochures and I'll see the biggest fish in the ocean -- the whale shark (but when is anything like the brochures). So far I haven't been able to speak much Spanish to stay in practice, but I've been reading lots of magazines and I'm about 4th of the way through an insanely difficult novel I bought. I'm thinking to make this journal bilingual so that I write it as well.

In other news, I'm about finished with my application to Peace Corps. I know there's a fifty-fifty chance, but I hope I can report here in six months that I'll be out of the country for two or three years doing some good. Although, if I end up teaching IT, I'm ambivalent, what if they've never had the annoyance of SPAM in their inbox, their hard drive crashing, cubicle confinement, or the countless umpteen side effects of this technomanic world?

Even if I don't get accepted, I've come to the conclusion that what I value the most right now in the wider world, is experience. I don't want to climb ladders simply because I have already put my foot on the first rung. It is time to be homeless, carless, possessionless, with a bus ticket, a knapsack, and a notebook.