Running the Noveling Gauntlet!

My Dear Reader,

As of ten seconds ago, I have decided to keep my word and actually finish my second NaNoWriMo novel. It was kind of a hard decision to make, since I have less than seven days left to reach my goal of 50,000 words and I only have *gulp* 2,096 words right now.

Am I crazy, you ask? No, no I'm not. I'm eccentric, that's all. The difference is fairly simple: crazy people get locked up, and eccentric people win Newberry medals and have very entertaining personal lives.

It's probably going to be an awful novel. I have officially ceased to care. It's 50,000 or bust! So the posting might be a little crazy eccentric in the upcoming days (hence the early post), but rest assured that I am typing my fingers off. How I can do this and simultaneously find a job is uncertain, but I think that I'm about to find out.

If you have interpreted this post as a tight-lipped plea for help, you may not be far off of the mark. And while you can't write my novel for me, you can become an official follower of my blog (i.e. click the link to the right that says, "Follow this blog") so I can know that you care.

Regards, best wishes, and 47,904 to go,

-Cecily Jane

Oh, the Irony: Obama's Blackberry

My Dear Reader,

Okay, so I really thought that this blog would steer clear of politics after the election, but something came to my attention that was just too good to pass up. It turns out that upon being sworn in as the President of the United States, President-Elect Obama is going to have to give up his precious Blackberry and e-mail accounts. A trivial matter, you say? Not to the newsmedia, it's not.

Check out this outrage that Lester Holt* (of NBC's Nightly News) has expressed on the subject. (Fast forward to 2:10 in to get right to it):

Can you feel the seething rage? I had to watch a couple of episodes of Sesame Street just to recover. Mr. Holt is just as upset as all Americans should be on the matter, though perhaps slightly more concerned than I would recommend. He and Savannah Guthrie are not the only ones in arms, however. All of the news is up in arms over this latest development as you can see here** and here. Even Fox has weighed in on the matter, as you can see here. With chilling accuracy, these reporters have tried to explain to us the painful, Blackberry-less future that Obama is facing come January, and you can't help but feel their overwhelming sympathy for him. It's so nice that they care.

But to be serious here: this is a stupid issue. What else do we need to know about our president and future president? Their top ten sitcoms of all time? Which leg they put in first when they're putting on their pants? What puppy they are planning to adopt? Never mind.

So why, then, would so much attention be spent on the issue? I had to think about that one for a second, until I realized that these journalists, despite their medium of choice, all have one trivial thing in common: they all use Blackberrys themselves. And if they all happen to be just as addicted as Obama is supposed to be, then it's easy to see how they would think that this is an issue that everyone actually cares about. Kind of like how the majority of those same journalists were so in the tank for Obama that they thought that we wanted to know just how much they loved him. And oh, did we know.

And here's the irony: Remember how Senator McCain was so harshly criticized for not knowing how to e-mail? Remember how people tried to make you believe that it mattered if a presidential candidate could e-mail or not? HA! Who's laughing now? (The answer: Cecily. Cecily is laughing.) So this begs the question: if the presidency means no Blackberry, and if a Blackberry is so important to a person like Obama, should Obama step down as president-elect and let someone who can handle going four years without e-mail take the job?

Regards, best wishes, and a bias-free media,

-Cecily Jane

P.S. Just to be clear, that sentence about Obama stepping down is a joke.

*By the way, as my claim to fame, my Madre went to high school with Lester Holt. It's true!

**And I have to say that me favorite headline of the day was the one from the New York Times article: "Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe ." So clear. So concise. So bold. That's why this newspaper is the king of all American newsmedia, you know. You must henceforth address it as "Your Majesty." Kissing the feet is also appropriate.

UPDATE: Here's another video on the subject (fast forward to 1:46):

Interview Confusion

My Dear Reader,

The post-graduation job hunt is not going very well! I've been pulling my hair out for the past few weeks and months, but I got my first interview yesterday for a glass/window place. It was great just to have an interview--after sending in so many resumes, and after searching through so many job listings. Of course, the job was going to be an hour away, so it was a long shot, but interview experience is worth the trouble.

When I got there, however, it was a little different of an experience than I had anticipated. The interviewer looked through my resume and immediately told me that I should try to work at a bookstore. Odd, I thought, that he had given up on me so quickly, and then something came out of his mouth that I never expected.

"So I see that you got your graduate degree* at BYU, so it seems that it would be obvious--or maybe not so obvious--that you're LDS," he said. I nodded. "So you have your sabbath on Friday night and Saturday . . ." he continued.

WHAT? What the what? "No," I said, "I think that you're confusing me with Seventh Day Adventists or Jews. My sabbath is Sunday." He backed down quickly, and I was grateful that I didn't get caught up in a "Yes, you do" "No, I don't" belief-battle as I have been in many a time before. Still, it was a weird interview. He ended up offering me a job as a door-to-door window salesperson, which wasn't what I applied for. I thought back to the month I spent as a struggling telemarketer (i.e. soul-seller), and I decided that I'm going to have to turn the job down.

At least I got a story out of it, right? Feel free to post your own weird interview or belief misunderstanding story below!

Regards, best wishes, and employment,

-Cecily Jane

*I don't know why he got the impression that I have a graduate degree, and he didn't seem to understand me when I tried to tell him that I have a bachelor's, he kept going on about this graduate degree that I don't have.

On President-Elect Obama

My Dear Reader,

Today, the citizens of the United States of America, exercising the power given to them by the Constitution, elected Senator Barack Obama to be their 44th president. Since Barack Obama is a man of African descent, this is a remarkable turning point in the history of our nation, and I cannot help but be proud of my nation for it.

Sure, he wasn't the guy I voted for. He and I share some fundamental ideological differences, and he had less experience under his belt than any president in years. He also has yet to prove himself to the world, but he has captured the hearts of a nation, and I commend him for that. And I can admit that a President Obama can offer Americans two things that they desperately need: confidence in their President and respect from the nations of the world. This post is not a conservative turning tail; it is an American facing the facts and the future. When you believe in the system, and the system overrules you, you can still believe in and support that system.

I still stand by decision, and no matter what anybody says, I still believe in Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. Yet, even as I'm typing this, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to explain this to my children-to-be, that I voted against the first black president. I suppose that I have a while until I figure it out.

In the meantime, I realize that Barack Obama has a sea of expectations to fill. He's been called a "Messiah," and if you will recall, the last Messiah we had rose people from the dead and atoned for the sins of every person who was, is, or will be. Sure, Mr. Obama is supposed to be a political Messiah only, but that kind of rhetoric means that this next president has even more challenges to face than John McCain would have had. This means that if he doesn't part the waters for the American people, he's going to be in a bit of trouble. Of course, if he does manage to part those waters, I won't complain one bit.

It's kind of a weird feeling to have your guy lose, especially since this was my first time voting. But at the same time, I feel privileged when I think that in my short twenty-three years of being on this earth, I have seen the destruction of Berlin Wall, the unity of the nation after the attacks of 9/11, and the election of a black person into the highest office in the land. I hope that this victory is more than simply cosmetic, and for the sake of the land I love, I pray that Barack Obama turns out to be the best president that we ever had.

Regards, best wishes, and change I now have to believe in,

-Cecily Jane