Brainwave : some career paths are “bug zappers” in that they offer a big bright future to lure you in and get your educational money, but most of the people won’t make it through to a career and just get “zapped”.
What none of these pricks and cunts will ask potential students is, “Are you prepared to fight like hell for the very tiny number of jobs in this field, and do you think you’ll win?”
Lack of that consideration is, in my experience, the main cause of highly intelligent, college educated people working menial McJobs that have nothing to do with their supposed area of expertise.
Kids, do NOT sign up for an education in any field where the only jobs in that field are in teaching it to others.
Because unless you are massively competitive, that’s a sucker bet.
Just one word : powerslut.
Word to the wise : I might not make it to 1K today. We will see.
Hope everyone enjoy the Christmas adventures of our fluffy little friend Fruvous.
I must admit, I am worried that sticking to my established pattern of writing everything strictly from his point of view might have made what was going on a tad too obscure. I probably should have gently bent the formula a little to actually use the word “Christma” in there a few times to give the audience a clue.
But he’s just a floofy little fox. He doesn’t know what Christmas is, or why any of the weird events of the story are happening. All he knows is what it seems like to him.
I guess that’s an issue a lot of authors have struggled with : being true to your vision versus making yourself clearly understood by your audience.
And nestled in there somewhere is whether or not it would be insulting to your audience to explain things a little TOO well.
You don’t want to talk to them like they’re idiots just because your healthy writer’s neurosis has you obsessed over being clearly understood.
Besides as a kid, I loved anything written from the point of view of an animal. One of my favorite books was this weird book where Merlin, in order to teach King Arthur to see things from the point of view of the natural world, first turns him into an ant so he can live as an ant for a while, then turns him into goose for the rest of the book.
Or possibly a duck. I don’t remember, I read the thing a long long time ago. Heck, I don’t even remember what the book was called!
It’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norman Juster all over again. When I was a kid in elementary school, I borrowed that book from the library, read it, loved it, returned it, then promptly forgot the title and therefore couldn’t read it again until I happened to finally meet someone else who had read it and could tell me the title.
And that didn’t happen til I was in junior high!
And you have to admit, the title has very little to do with the events of the book. It’s like if “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” had been called “The Magic Closet”, or if “Alice in Wonderland” had been called “The Weird Hole”.
But, let’s not go there.
More after the break.
A very Fruvous Christmas morning
When he woke up and stretched all four little paws toward the ceiling then flopped over onto his feet and stood up, shook out his fur, then gave the air a little sniff, Fruvous immediately knew something was different from last night.
Something subtle, but important. And not just that all the strangers from last night were gone. That had happened when Fruvous had still been (kind of) awake last night.
No, something new had happened. He was smelling things he had smelled before, but only faintly. Now they were much stronger.
This was far too interesting. He had to investigate!
He frisked his way up the basement stairs and into the family room, and saw a vision of perfectly delightful chaos.
A few of the odd smelling boxes with the paper on them had been opened, and now some of those odd smells had an obvious source. Not only that, but the paper was strewn all around, along with big white clouds of softer paper, and these clouds made very exciting rustling noises when they moved. And the whole family was all gathered around and laughing and smiling and everyone was so warm and happy!
This all made Fruvous so excited he could barely stand it! His fluffy tail was wagging a mile a minute as he rushed around the room smelling all the new things.
“Ah, so there’s our little lisa! ” boomed Papa as everyone chuckled at the manic frenzy of the little fox. “Thank you so much for joining us!”.
Stacy was giggling so hard she nearly fell over. “Daddy, he’s so silly!”
But she knew what her job was. When Fruvous came near, she deftly and gently scooped him up into her arms and gave him a kiss on the nose.
:”Slow down, silly. You can’t smell everything at once!” she laughed.
Fruvous replied as he always did : by licking her face all over, setting off another storm of giggles as she fell on to her back with him on top of her.
After making sure she was properly soggy with his love for her. Fruvous trotted off to further investigate. But more slowly and carefully now.
Of particular interest was Nicholas’ new brown suede boots. The lovely detailing and superb craftmanship meant nothing to the fox, but the smell of the leather was intoxicating, causing him to sniff so deeply into the boot that his little snout got caught in there, eliciting a muffled bark of confusion and terror.
Luckily Raina swiftly pulled the boot off the poor fox’s muzzle, then fuzzled his head and called him a durak.
After that, everything went smoothly. People opened their presents one by one, and Fruvous politely restrained himself to a quick sniff-over of the new object plus the recipient’s hands before allowing things to continue.
Usually the recipient gave him a pat or a pet or a rub, which Fruvous considered fair compensation for his services as gift inspector.
Then, just as the last present was being unwrapped, Fruvous dashed off into the house, leaving his bemused family behind.
“He must have some very important business to attend to upstairs!” remarked Nicholas.
Mama put on her fake-disapproving voice and said. “Tch, working on Christmas day!”
Raina nodded solemnly. “Mama, I’m beginning to think our little lisa is a heathen!”
Then everybody broke into gales of laughter.
But what they did not know was that Fruvous had not run off at random.
Fruvous had figured out that what would come after the presents was a meal, and he planned to be strategically placed when it happened.
See, he knew that he was not allowed under the dining room table during a meal. But he WAS allowed under there at all other times.
Ergo, if he was under the table BEFORE the meal, he could stay under there while the kids fed him little scraps of food..
And all he had to do was be very, very quiet so Mama didn’t catch on.
And he was very good at being quiet.
He waited under the table, and basked in his own cleverness, tail swishing.
He couldn’t wait to taste what he’d been smelling for so long!
And too much food.
And I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.