Archive for October, 2007

3-2-1 Monday, October 29th, 2007

Some exciting things:

1. I’m moving to Oxford. I’ll be staying in an amazing freshly refurbished house (”the loveliest house in Oxford,” one of my housemates correctly said) with three other guys, all lovely, and starting an internship with Oxfam, which will, I hope, lead to a permanent position in a few months. It’s all happening; I’ll be off within the next couple of weeks. I’m excited to gain my independence, to do something professionally that I think is worthwhile, and to move to one of the nicest locations in England. Yay!

2. Katie was accepted to come to London with college next semester. With her in London and myself in Oxford, we can see each other at weekends and even some evenings and at not much expense. Yay!

3. Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle is ready to send to prospective agents, and I’m very excited about getting query letters out there (I’m waiting until I’ve moved). Wish me luck!

Some less exciting things:

1. Anybody who had trouble seeing my web site before should be much better off now. I’ve made it much simpler and more streamlined so that it should work on any computer. It’s not as much fun as before but on the whole it’s an improvement. Fascinating, yes?

2. There are fifty-seven days until Christmas.

Something depressing:

Why has it suddenly become de rigeur for huge corporations to cut thousands of jobs? Cadburys, Royal Mail and the BBC are all planning absurd quantities of redundancies because the people at the top still want more money for themselves. It’s “definitely in the best interests of the BBC,” says Michael Lyons. What about the interests of the people who work for the BBC, with families to feed and rent to pay?

3-2-1. Not a bad ratio, I think.

Posted in Books, Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Short Tall Tales, kkcom • 5 comments

Oxfam internship Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

I’m off for an interview on Monday at Oxfam HQ in lovely Oxford for a voluntary internship in the HR department. The position lasts four months and could very likely lead to a paid position at Oxfam, which would make me very happy indeed. Mom and Dad and I have been saving up and, with an accompanying part-time job, I could live in Oxford for a net loss of about £25 a week. This may seem like insanity, but think of how much money most people spend studying at university to acquire a job that they care about, and apply relativity. It’s also possible that I could get a grant to help me along.

I was really impressed when I called up that Karyn, the HR executive, knew offhand so much about me: my interests, skills, situation. It’s that kind of personal effort that makes for a really good working relationship.

Living in Oxford would be wonderful: Oxford is a pretty city, fairly cheap and safe to live in and close enough to London to suit Katie and I while she’s here next year.

As with the last time, I’m really trying not to get too excited and hopeful about the possibilities ahead. But I’m really, really bad at that.

Wish me luck please!

Posted in Oxfam, Oxford, Personal • 1 comment

Two articles Sunday, October 7th, 2007

Recently I watched an excellent film called “Sunshine,” in which a group of astronauts and physicists attempt to deliver a bomb the size of Manhattan into the centre of our dying Sun, reigniting it and saving humanity from a frosty extinction.

Such extravagant science fiction seemed like exactly that: fiction. But, apparently, “geo-engineering” - gargantuan mega-solutions to an obscenely large (and growing) problem - is a developing idea that could be the saviour of our carbon-soaked planet. Here’s an intersting article on the subject.

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You will soon be 82. You have shrunk six centimetres and you weigh just 45 kilos and you are still beautiful, gracious and desirable. It is now 58 years that we have lived together and I love you more than ever. I carry in myself a devouring emptiness within the hollow of my chest, which can only be filled by the warmth of your body against mine.

That André Gorz’s beautiful suicide letter should be published for the world to read is wonderful: it’s a stunning display of romance and poetry that makes me well up with love as if I was a part of this lost couple myself. Hopefully an English translation will appear online soon. I think it would be a little too much irony for me to handle if the last, passionate declaration of a man so set against capitalism should become an international bestseller.

Posted in Films, Misc • No comments