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I got a bit of a wake-up call at a job fair this weekend. Altogether it was a good experience for me, as I now know what I need to work on and what my best employment prospects are. So, thanks everyone for helping me figure things out.
This morning, I received an e-mail from a former boss. This boss saw a link to the transcript of Friday’s radio piece on the Brownfield tax credit cap proposed in the New York State budget in a Google Alert e-mail. This person liked the piece. Knowing that an insider insider appreciates my work is very nice. (And yes, I think this person would have called me out if I had gotten something wrong in the story.)
I just finished re-reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, which I first read in the summer of 2005. The book became a favorite of mine.
(I read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price a few weeks later and got confused because Rowling’s world and Clarke’s world are very different and the latter was still fresh in my mind. For example, the limits of who can perform magic and the practice of performing magic are at odds in the two worlds. Interestingly, Clarke only includes the words of only a few spells, where as Rowling teaches spells to her readers along with her characters.)
Clarke came to Symphony Space in September 2005 for a reading and discussion of her debut novel. The explanations of her inspiration and character background that she gave that night made the book that much more enjoyable looking back. But I had lent it to someone have have never seen that copy again. This winter, after reading her short stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, I purchased another copy. And I am glad I did. Clarke’s stories in Ladies certainly added a little context for the events of the novel. You can enjoy stories without the novel, and vise versa, but I felt that I understood a little more the ideas of magic and stories about magic Clarke tells us in the novel English people have or know because I’ve read a few of them myself.
The last two weeks were re-filled with suspense and adventure, taking me from York to Genoa to Lost-hope. Even though I have called this book a favorite for almost three years, it was surprising how much of the story I had forgotten. Far from being bad, having a vague idea of what was about to happen and then having it unfold was a lot of fun.
My reactions to each character had changed from last reading to this. Maybe because I am older and a little more worldly now I identify with them differently and found some actions more–or less–upsetting that before. Spoiler ahead! For example, in this reading Arabella really grew on me. Norrell seemed a little more pathetic than evil. The connection between Strange and Norrell amused me both times. On first reading, I was a Strangite, but now, like John Childermass (one of the most interesting characters in the novel), I’m both that and a Norrellite.
The joys of re-reading!
Be proud of me.
In college, I finished both Senior Theses in the wee hours of the morning they were due. The result? A History thesis with embarrassing typos and both repeated and omitted words (fixed now, however). My parents pointed these out to me over my spring break that year. My adviser pointed them out to me in a meeting when I returned to school … of course he was kind enough to wait to tell me about these until after I had opened the envelope containing my marked thesis, which I had with me for the duration of the meeting but had not opened. The meeting was about my job prospects. (Curious reader, I did very well on the thesis. The Environmental Studies thesis was fine, too.)
So, yesterday, I made two changes to a draft my current adviser had okay’d. He said they were fine…so I hurried to school, printed my thesis and handed it in. The thesis is not due until Monday. Oh, the change! But really, I have to go home this weekend and did not want to have to print the three copies for submission on Monday along with many of my classmates or run the risk of missing the 10 a.m. deadline as I hurried to my 10:30 a.m. class.
I still have work to do this week for my radio workshop, but I feel like I am on vacation.
Every April the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to New York. The large animals (elephants and horses) are unloaded from a train in Queens and then walk through the Queens Midtown Tunnel and along 34th Street to Madison Square Garden. This all happens at around midnight.
There is always a group protesting the use of animals in the circus, and there are always people who go nuts when they see the elephants.
Here are some pictures and a video I shot of the elephants and horses.
It’s that time again…no classes! Having spent the last two years at a 9-5 job, I forgot that things like … vacations in March … existed!
The last spring break I had was in 2005. My Senior Thesis was due something like the day we left school, so it really was a break.
That spring break I took the GRE. I had a fever that day. I visited a friend at school and watched her Senior Thesis play. I met somebody I liked. I worked. I totaled an electric-blue Pontiac Grand Am. (My parents still are uncomfortable letting me drive, even though the accident was caused by ice on the road.) I had an interview for a summer internship.
This spring break I have to work, too…but on school assignments. Spitzer’s resignation set me back on a policy story and now I have to change direction. My masters article is due in exactly one week. While the J-School library and J-School cafe are not open, I am working in the J-School student center. At least the building and equipment room are open.
So to everyone who left their school for spring break, whether your destination is warm, exotic or just “home”, enjoy it.
Last rainy Saturday, we went to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. We waited in a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts for an hour until the torrent slowed to a drizzle, and finally made it through the gates. After walking past mausoleums and the chapel and pond, we headed up to find the burial sites of Horace Greeley and Boss Tweed. But first, we found the monument to DeWitt Clinton, former governor of New York and the “Father of the Erie Canal”. Is it wrong that we took shelter huddled up against his monument while a 30-second deluge passed?
With the brochures and map of the cemetery, I really felt like a tourist.
Even so, the gravestones of the regular people in the cemetery were more interesting, to me.
For example; William A. Greene. Greene was taken prisoner at Bull Run and held as a prisoner of war for ten months. He reenlisted and was injured in April 1864. He died in Savannah, Geo. in 1865. How do I know this, his complete Army service record is recorded on his stone.
The Warnock-Burrill-Nixon family (Warnock originally from Scotland) has a little plot. One little Warnock stone is engraved with “Baby” on the top and, “To our wee little man,” (James Warnock Nixon) on the face. Little James was born in October 1892 and died only five months and four days later. I wonder what happened.
Another grave marked the passing of two siblings, John “Johnnie” (aged four years) and Eliza “Lizzie” (aged 13 years) Pollock. They passed away within ten months of each other. Their grieving mother wanted the world to know how much tears she shed and the pain she felt, but that she knew they would see each other once more.
My favorite path in Green-Wood passes high above a small pond. The path is not cared for. Bricks that once must have fit smoothly together have crumbled and some are gone. Here is where Peter V. King, Percy R. Pyne and C. A. Heckscher have their mausoleums built into the hillside.
Just before 5 p.m.,we decided that it would soon be dark and that we should leave. But before we made it to the gate, a cemetery security guard who had been following us all afternoon, pulled up next to us in his car and politely asked us to leave. Apparently, the cemetery closed at 5 p.m., which had already passed. Whoops.
We must go back.
This rainy Sunday, I spent fixing up my website and checking my credit score. Score!
The Strand Diner, at 206 W. 96th St., has served its last beef sausage, mushroom and feta cheese Strand Omelet, its last Irish Bacon Burger with sauteed onions and its last cup of coffee.
Items from the diner, including the large, pastel-colored picture of two winged horses, blenders and dishes were sold at a public auction this afternoon.
I ate there on Sunday morning and had no idea it would be my final time.
A rise in rent was cited as the closure’s cause.
Update (March 18)
Signs on the windows now say that the building is coming down (it’s been sold). What will replace the one-story diner? Probably a 35-story apartment building.
With school ending in just a few weeks, I am in search of a job. I have a few ideas of where I want to end up, but whether I get there depends on many things. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Wish me luck!
I’ve finally decided that I want a blog separate from my works site.
You’ve missed me, I know.
Second semester could not be more different than first, and I am so happy. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the law class and ethics and history class I took in the fall. But the radio workshop, news editing and deadline classes I’m in now are fantastic. I have been blessed with great professors and adjuncts who take time to explain why something is right or wrong and who do it with patience and understanding that you’re a student and are there to learn. Nice.
