Super Mundane Creative Project Announcement!

Ahem...

Imagine there is a world where people have super powers (or we can call them post-human abilities, gifts, etc.) but for one reason or another, there is not much motivation to use them for traditional superheroics. Instead, they use abilities for ordinary purposes, not drawing attention to themselves, not doing anything that would bring them under much scrutiny. What challenges would they face? What would they worry about? Can we make something interesting out of the super-mundane?

What I'm asking for is creativity. If you want, you can submit short stories, print art, paneled comics, or just a quick pitch for an idea.

The constraints:
1. Characters should have some superhuman ability (telekinesis, time travel, psychometry, etc.) that they use in a creative way without drawing much (if any) attention to themselves, or bringing themselves under scrutiny.

2. I'd like to avoid superheroics, villainy, super-villainy, terrorism, shadowy organizations and things like that if at all possible. I just don't want to cover material that's already been repeated ad nauseum for the last eighty years.

That's it. Now, my example, which I think would work well as a paneled comic:

A community college groundskeeper finds himself raking leaves on campus. When classes start, he finds himself alone and not observed, so he uses telekinesis to assist him in picking up, shredding, and bagging leaves, thereby saving himself an hour or so of work, so he can go back to the office and get warm for a while.

Or for another example...

A guy with time travel abilities utilizes them to perform street magic.

Please feel free to submit your ideas or content to me at racejackson@gmail.com, and we can work toward compiling something wonderful.

Union Pacific Railroad. Round One. FIGHT!

All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.

I had a first-round interview with Union Pacific today in Portland. I honestly was nervous through the entire process. I got to my mom's last night and she let me drive her car down to Portland this morning; I was shaky the entire trip down. I left Steilacoom at 5:00 and arrived with enough time to scout the place out, run over to Fred Meyer for a minute, then come back and sit and worry. After a few minutes, another car pulled up and its driver did the same thing I was doing. A third and fourth car pulled in and five of us sat in our cars and looked nervous.

non est ad astra mollis e terris via

We eventually trickled into the building. The Barnes Yard in Portland actually has what looks like any university classroom.

Per audacia ad astra

I was the only candidate there for the Mechanical Operations position. The rest had business degrees and were there for a Yard manager position. I felt a little singled out.

am Ende des Spieles werden der Koenig auch der Bauer in den selben Kiste gestellt

The HR guy presented a slideshow of what the company is about. I impressed with some of my knowledge on history, President Lincoln, Promontory, the golden spike, and so on, but I was blown away by the sheer scale of what this company does. I was also blown away by the demand it has on its employees.

Being a non-agreement employee at UP means being on call 24/7, working 12-hour days outside in ALL weather conditions, and a lengthy (up to three year) training program. One practically lives in hotels during that time and is flown to and from Omaha on a weekly basis. This would mean a lot of away time from my girls, missing holidays, birthdays, and opportunities. This would require a sacrifice I'm not sure I'm ready to make.

He gave us ten minutes to make up our minds whether this is something we want to try, and gave us an opening to bow out. He figured if we don't want to live this life, there's no point in taking the four-hour testing battery. I stayed; I had nowhere else to go. My desire to spread my wings and move on from Pullman and this life outweighed my fear. I needed to talk to Naomi about this.

See, UP makes it very lucrative to put up with the hardship. A high starting salary and frequent raises are spelled out up front. The HR guy said, "you won't get rich working for Union Pacific, but I can afford to send my kid to private school." The numbers he presented along with the benefits suppressed my unease. I could pay off my truck in six months, our combined college debt in two years. I could restore my credit rating and have a sizable down payment on a house in three years.

Railroad employees pay a different kind of taxes, get their own version of Social Security, and UP invests heavily in its employees' retirements.

Better that this opportunity arises now, when Peri is tiny. The lifestyle stabilizes somewhat after five years; Peri would be six years old before Dad is home on the regular.

What I guess I'm getting at is that love really is spelled T-I-M-E. After hearing that I have a shot at this job, I started daydreaming about little Peri and I running around in the Midwest countryside, pulling her around in a sled, playing with big dogs together, spending time. Together. The notion made me so happy. I would be able to do these things, eventually, but could I do them in the time frame where it would matter most to Peri?

The testing was all right. It was all a lot of critical thinking, and self-evaluation. I was still very uneasy about the whole prospect that I briefly contemplated finishing my tests before my interview came up and quietly slip  out, go out to the car, and cry a little. I finished the tests and sat out in the lunchroom with a brakeman on his lunch break. He chatted me up while he read the paper, and then my name came up. The interview went smoothly; I had intelligent and well-thought answers for all of the questions and I didn't get a bad vibe from the interviewer.

I practically ran out to the car and called Naomi, pouring out my worries about our little family and, bless her, she seemed to be all right with the scenario. She said she's all right with the hardship if it means a promising future for us. She would choose the danger. She's so wonderful that I can't tell her enough.

I feel confident in my self-representation today. I feel confident in my testing (results post online Tuesday). I don't know why I am still so uneasy about the whole thing. I could be invited to a second interview in Roseville, CA in a month, where I would really need to bring the razzle-dazzle. Or, the process could end right here for me.

...who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

One of the questions in my interview was regarding my leadership or managerial experience. I had to honestly say that I have very little "official" experience. I frankly said that I have a couple of coworkers in my department to whom I feel like a big brother, and how I refuse to see them fail. These guys I respect and admire for the things they do and their dedication to their work.

 In this world you will have to make your own way. To do that you must have friends. You can make friends by being honest and you can keep them by being steadfast

I know what I must do. Must keep moving forward. Cultivate more options. Be the best husband and dad I can be right now. If UP comes calling, I must not hesitate, cannot fail to try.

Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will?

Dress Shoes Make Good "Everything Else" Shoes

The other day I was feeling kind of down. I don't know what it was; it just felt like the world was going by faster than usual. I decided to combat the problem by putting on a shirt and tie and reading the Ensign with my sweetie. This month's First Presidency Message was really good and it spoke to me in a lot of ways. We decided to take the heart of the message and paint it onto a plaque. I hopped up, went outside, found a piece of pine from an earlier project and cut it down with a handsaw. I ran back inside, grabbed a block plane and put a chamfer on the edges and made a nice, rustic plaque. Thinking of another plaque I had been wanting to make, I cut a piece from some pallet scraps and planed it down as well. All this happened while wearing a good shirt, tie, and my suit trousers. I guess I find healing standing out in the cold, sawing and planing at wood as I spent the rest of the day feeling more productive and happy.

Something a Little Sad

Take a look at this. This is what I found in the toy section at Walmart the other day. It depicts a satellite launch. This is what we do as far as our space program goes. It pales in comparison to this:

Or this

It's gone around a lot already, but it's something I noticed. We won't have need to have awesome space shuttle Lego if there's no awesome space shuttle. It's too bad.

GW out

Busy Busy Busy

To say the least, I've been swamped with things going on, between training for the STP, trying to start up a hurling club, mentoring, working, and a few whirlwind weekend trips, I've had hardly any time to try my canoe.
What's that? Gary has a canoe? Why yes. Dad and I have been talking about getting a canoe for nearly a decade, and a few months ago, we finally did it. The Missourian, by Osagian Canoes, is seventeen feet of aluminum beauty. I arrived delivered on a freight truck, enclosed in a 20'x4'x4' cardboard box. With a beam of 44" at the widest point, with a square stern for motor mounting, this boat is stable, and with all that width and a maximum draft of 13", it can hold up to 1000 pounds of people and cargo. It is a little cumbersome to paddle, but is ideal for long touring or a good day of fishing.
To transport our new craft, I threw together a quick and dirty rack out of 2x4s and joist hangers. Mostly eyeballed the project, and after a revision before the second trip out, it really serves its purpose.
Also big news: we went to our second hurling tournament at the Green Lake Gaelic Games in Seattle a few weeks ago. I started out in the defense for the Portland team (the Columbia Red Branch) and only sat out for about a minute of two games. The first was a defeat (versus the Vancouver B.C. Harps, best team in North America) and in the second game, we narrowly pulled a victory (vs. the Seattle Gaels). In the Gaels game, I started out defending against an older gentleman who has been playing hurling since the 1960s. He's still pretty fast, and I let him know up front that I was terrified of him. He laughed and actually gave me some pointers. I also finished up the second half of the coaches training, which now gives me the certification as a GAA Hurling Coach 1. My qualifications are for early player development, fundamentals training, and youth coaching. There is a second level of certification I can gain, which covers gameplay and field strategy. I don't know when that course will be run.

In the mean time, we are having a tough time with scheduling to get practices in. We've also been shut out of our normal practice field, due to renovations. We've found some alternatives, with baseball backstops, which allow for some good striking practice. I'm getting better at ground strikes, and eventually I'll be able to hit the ball far enough to be impressive.

Flew to Reno the other day. Got to spend some time with my uncle and cousins, and then I got to drive the distance back to Pullman, in a rented moving truck...
That was a fun eleven hour trip.

Epoxy project is nearing completion... Maybe my skin won't be constantly dyed black anymore.

A cool video I saw some time ago

I saw this quite a few months ago and I thought I should share it. Every time I watch it, I can trick myself into thinking I am as good at Street Fighter as this guy is. Then again, it took this guy an entire summer and a whole lot of editing to achieve what he did here. My favorite part is when Ryu is juggling the Juggernaut in the air for half a minute with Juggie never hitting the ground.

Video Games | | Ryu Combos Evo 2k9

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Roasting Something? I'll Consult the Meat Czar

Today is of course Christmas Day. It was wonderful weather in Western Washington this year, as opposed to last year which was... less so. Mom put me in sole charge of an eleven-pound rib roast and then said "good luck."

I just sort of winged it, as per usual with my cooking, and the roast came out perfect. Good meat.

For Christmas this year, I gave everyone something I would not mind getting myself. I extended my interest in comic books to my mom in a hard-bound copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published my Marvel Comics (On that note, the Cowardly Lion is my favorite character). Dad got a new pocket knife. Jim and Brooke got a little kid carrier backpack for hiking or whatever. Michelle got two sets of blocks; the young mad scientist's blocks and the alphabet in Braille and ASL. Gram is getting a new light installed in the bathroom and Gary got a Puget Sound photograph collection.

Mom also received a tutorial on the care and feeding of an iPod Nano.

You should stop what you are doing right now and go see Avatar. It is by far the best looking film I have seen in a number of years.

... Welcome back. Wasn't Avatar a good movie? Anyways, tomorrow being Boxing Day, I'm running errands over here before I have to scoot back to Pullman. This will include a trip to the German deli for some sausage and things.

I realize that running errands has little to do with Boxing Day.

I got a new broom for curling last week. It's sleek and white and shiny, with an orange flame job on the lower half. It took some getting used to, and I did burn one stone with it on its maiden voyage, but it will be a big improvement to our game. Starting in a few weeks, I'll be throwing lead for our team.

Driving in to my dad's the other night, when it was dark and dreary on a lonely road that is seldom traveled in the winter (so it seems), I found great relief to come around the corner and see Dad's house illuminated and the gate open. I said aloud, "There's the light of home."

Dad and I made a pot of clam chowder like we used to when I was very small, and we talked college football. I showed him some of my curling moves and we had a great time.

I think I'll head downstairs and work on assembling my Lego set, as per tradition. The narrative flow of this post has been erratic, but this is how it came out as I typed it. Thank you for your consideration.