multiverse spatterings

Hi there, multiverse, how do you do?

I sit on Monday afternoonish eating a home-made burrito with mushrooms & tarragon. My sweet Corgweiler friend Sparkus sits in whiny beg. Th Captain wails away 'Ice Cream For Crow'. All things go.

As of a week minus a day ago, I no longer work for Greenpeace. I enjoyed my time there, but th time came for newthings. Approaching hundreds of grumpy strangers for money every day grew wearisome.

I spend days diddling on my mandolin & job-fishing. I scheduled an interview today at a dog walkery not far from my bedside. On th Saturday that cometh next, return to walkery I will. Walkin' makes money. I like pupples.

In meantime, I seek opportunities for mandolinnery. I want to do many shows all of times. I want friendlies to do visitations & dance. Suchness makes happiness. Isness makes fallacy.

I will assemble information about th upcomings when they upcome.

Many Lovely Glove Spatterings,
Andrew th Nim

dark night of th soul

Th time has come for me to reassess my goals with Greenpeace.

Why do I canvass?

.. To secure new members for Greenpeace so it can continue to defend th Earth.
.. To make enough money to live.
.. Because I already have this job & I'm used to it.
.. Because I work with amazing people that delight me.
.. To allow myself to replace my 'I'm not a people-person' programming script with an 'I can talk to & relate to anyone' programming script.
.. Because I can canvass well.

Securing New Members

On an abstract, logical level, I see th connection between my conversations, my sign-ups, & th great work that Greenpeace does all over th world. Lately, I've had trouble feeling motivated by that. Members leads to support leads to good work leads to a healthier planet, I know, but on a day-to-day basis, standing on street corners, that seems too abstract to inspire me recently.

Affording to Live

Important. I've finally stopped needing support from my mother for student loan payments, cell phone bills, rent, car insurance, etc. I live with Tiffany & Jordan now, & I help them every way that I can. I'm not getting rich, that's for sure, but I'm not freaking out about bills. I can actually afford to relax, eat out now & then, pick up new books, & other such little niceties. Th money issue inspires me to keep doing this job, but it doesn't make me like it.

I'm Used to This Job

I found that I can do this. This is what I do. What would be th alternative to canvassing? I don't want to substitute teach again. I'm still unsure about teaching music, also. Yes, I'd enjoy doing more of my own music - sometimes it really gets me down that I'm not - but I can't survive as a full time Nodal Nimist! In general, job hunting terrifies me. In Greenpeace, I have found employment.

Amazing People

I've never known as many fantastic, interesting, intelligent, warm, alive, intriguing, hilarious, inspiring, beautiful, complex people as I do now through Greenpeace! Altho I still miss so many Troy & Potsdam friends, I feel very loved here now. I would miss these people unbearably if I didn't see them five to seven days a week.

Developing a 'People-Person' Script

I (like all humans) cling desperately to my limited definition of myself, my habits, my ego. My self-consciousness has th potential to socially paralyze me. When I succeed in 'getting over myself,' I can canvass. All that exists in those moments is canvassing. No 'Andrew' (as I define him) & no 'Stranger' (also my definition). This doesn't happen all th time. It comes in waves. When I cannot reach this place, & languish, suffer, stress out, get angry & spiteful, fail to canvass. I want very much to shed this self-consciousness. In fact, I've seen myself do things on th street I would never have thought possible, things that would terrify me if I let them but can seem so easy! Lately, I've been pulling back from that, back into my own shell, back into 'Unfriendly Andrew,' my self-fulfilling prophesy, my illusionary ego creation, my stumbling block.

Skillful Canvassing

I can do this job. I know I can. I've done it. What seemed impossible I proved possible months ago. When I see this happen, it builds on itself, & I kick butt. Confidence helps me soar. Lately I've forgotten this, fallen back to bad habits, lost confidence. But I know I can do this. I need to remind myself. I need to prove it to myself again. I need to get over myself.


My canvassing funk has reached an all-time low. Three days in, I have signed up no new members. I'm behind expectations & requirements. I can't help but have thoughts like "I can't do this, I suck at this, I'm in th wrong job, I hate these people, these people hate me, I'd rather be home in bed, I bet I won't sign anyone up today, they're going to fire me, what am I doing here?". But I have a couple days of weekend to reflect now, to reassess. I had something & allowed myself to drop it. Well, now I'm going to pick myself back up. Now I'm going to face my fears & bruised ego & trepidation & make something new happen. I'm going to evolve.

I will emerge victorious from this dark night of th soul.

fixx om 4

On Wednyt (at Fixx Coffee Bar) did play I:

.. glockenspiels
.. science

On Tonyt (at Greenpeace office party) did play I:

.. stelr nursery > baby star > brown dwarf
.. 25% mor monstr > 2 G's
.. vejtbls u'v nevr herd of

I'm thinking of trying out Heartland Cafe's open mic next Wednyt.

~a

Holy hey diddle diddle

Holy hey diddle diddle (didl didl in cut spelng for those curious explorer types), I've been working at Greenpeace for an effing month! So weird, it seems to me, that I do what I do.

Often in life, I've felt like some space alien who crashlanded on th wrongest planet possible. I have never bought others' reality, never excelled at assimilation, never found myself easily grokked by th people around me. Chicago has seemed like just another miserable city on th planet of th squares slash ueber hip slash conformists slash nonconformistconformists. As always, I can find no culture, no subculture, of Andrews.

But since I stumbled into Greenpeace, I very recently realized that I have things that I can fairly & proudly call friends. We're th office of th misfits, & I effing love it.

I have stumbled upon friends in th past of course. It happens thru avenues of theatre, music, clay, & chaos - thru art - transcendent, chaotic, divine, explosively rich & challenging art. Thinking of this, I reach a realization that we Greenpeacers do art.

It goes like this:

Every day, I go to some given streetcorner in Chicago, approach hundreds of absolute strangers - each in their own reality tunnels trying to get thru th hectic day without losing their minds - & start conversations:

How are you today, sir? How do you feel about Global Warming? - Ma'am, you wanna help save a Polar Bear today, right? - This guy looks like an environmentalist! Have you heard about Greenpeace, man? - Come talk to me about saving our Mother Earth!

I find it utterly fascinating how absolutely th same everyone seems & how absolutely unique at th same time. I never have th same conversation twice. Never! (But th goal remains th same, more or less: convince th mark that Greenpeace is worth donating to & get em to fill out my form & give me eir credit card number.)

In conclusion, we do art:

.th art of conversation
.th art of manipulation slash persuasion
.th art of selling (a reality-tunnel, an organization, a future)
.th art of rhetoric
.th art of canvassing (as this activity gets officially called)

No one does this job th same. No one paints th same painting (slash reality-tunnel slash conversation etc). We do art - transcendent, chaotic, divine, explosively rich & challenging art.

((((( So it feels on a "good day." )))))

331

Since my last post, I missed birthdays - mine & at least two others, probably millions - & also Discordian holydays - Confuflux & th 23rd of July (I think all 23s ought to be holydays). I also failed to mention another Gallery Cabaret open mic that I played last week. I don't think it worth mentioning except to say that I wound up 23rd on th list thru no conscious action of mine.

FNORD

I've quite by accident discovered another holynumber of some importance: 331.

A few weeks ago, Greenpeace Chicago got 331 new member sign-ups, breaking th national records of all Greenpeace offices. It stands as our personal best.

A few days ago, another Greenpeacer & I signed each other up as members. Here's how I determined what I would donate: about a quarter a day is 12 dollars a month. Twelve dollars is slightly more than minimum, which is 10 dollars. I decided I like th number 13 better than th number 12. So I wrote 13. Then I decided to make it a palindrome, so I added .31, making th donation 13.31. See th 331? I didn't intend it, but it seemed fitting.

This didn't seem weird until this morning, when I bought a feta pasta salad. Th price? $3.31.

I'll keep you posted on further occurances of this number, & I invite you to do th same.

By th way, how does 331 fit with th Law of Fives? Quite simple:

3 + 3 - 1 = 5.

magick 6 (7?)

Greenpeace continues to rock my socks. Altho on Monday & Tuesday we worked some weatheryucky days, today th temp stayed at a wonderful 71 degrees & awesome. I signed up six new members. On some of th sign-ups, I got really lucky, & on some I had to work for it. I'm turning into quite th manipulator!

As long as I stay above a certain minimum, my job remains secure. When I blow my minimum out of th water, I start to bonus & get more money. I hope to bonus my first week; I have bills.

Oh, & th sevenquestionmark in th title refers to a telephone sign-up (a.k.a. call-back) that I made this evening after my shift ended. It will count for tomorrow, so my record for one day remains six.

kicking ass & taking names

...literally. Well, th names part, not th kicking ass part.


Today I had my first real day of work as a Greenpeace frontliner, which means a person who approaches people on th street to sign them up as monthly members, & it totally rocked! As a newbie, I was expected to approach lots of people & practice my spiel, plus get at least one new member, at any donation level. I was crafty (& lucky) enough to get two new members. They donated 20 & 25 dollars, bringing me to a total for th day of $45, which is well above th requirements for full workers who've already finished training! Wow!

Beginner's luck, perhaps.

But I really enjoyed it. I feel like this type of experience will do wonders for my social anxieties. If I can talk comfortably to hundreds of strangers every day at my job, it'll find it that much easier to talk to strangers out of work, at bars & restaurants & wherever else people run into people.

Plus, Greenpeace rocks, & it feels awesome to work for it.

THAT'S RIGHT! I'M A GREENPEACE ADVOCATE!

Two days ago, I discovered all my job leads had fallen thru th proverbial cracks & I found myself back at square effing one. No record store retail; no full-time dog-walking for rich white people in fancy neighborhoods. In fact, I found myself discouraged & miserable about it; yesterday, I ignored th problem & slept until 2:00.

But today I remembered a pretty girl who stopped me on th street a few weeks ago soliciting for Greenpeace. I told her I'd love to join but I can't afford extra expenses, since I quit my job & all my bills lie in wait to ambush me at th end of th month. She rocked, though; we talked about jobs a bit & she said, "By th way, Greenpeace is hiring..." That got th wheels turning.

So today I called Greenpeace at 11:00ish (after having applied for another coffee-sloshing job that I didn't feel too thrilled about), & I got invited to a group interview at 1:00. I zipped down to my apartment (from Tiffany's), washed up, threw on a tie-dye shirt for good karma, & got all sweaty again biking downtown for th meeting. Th girl who interviewed us rocked & got me excited about environmentalism (something I've always felt strongly about anyway). Th other three job-hunters there also rocked. We had some good conversations between th one-on-one interviews. Two of them have come from Ireland for th summer (but they haven't read any James Joyce), and th other comes from Michigan. So after each of us finished our one-on-ones, we all four got hired in one giant ecstatic moment of relief!

I start training on Monday! Hot dog!

On th bike ride home, a guy came up to me, "Hey, man, would you like to join Greenpeace!" & I was all like, "I am one of you, my man, I just got hired today!" So I introduced myself to my new comrade Drew.

Kickin'!

th sevens.

Yesterday, I played my seventh open mic at Gallery Cabaret, & th day prior I played my seventh at Hotti Biscotti. I've been experimenting with a new format of Nimsong-cover-Nimsong, since I've practiced some covers I enjoy & seem to fit what I do.

Hotti Biscotti:

.. slip on broken violence now [co-writer: NBorden]
.. Ella Guru [cover of a song by Captain Beefheart]
.. 5 songs of fish

Gallery Cabaret:

.. 2G's [request]
.. Ella Guru [ditto]
.. glockenspiels

I've laid back from my daily divinations in favor of studying & applying th Aztec 260-day calendar called th tonalpohualli, which I find intensely fascinating. Explore it yourself & find joy.

All my potential jobs have fallen thru th cracks, except perhaps for professional guinea-pigging at th University of Chicago (as a research test subject getting injected with mystery drugs & such). So I started from scratch today & got an interview at Greenpeace doing "Face-to-face street fundraising". In fact, I need to get moving so I can make it there on time.

4 - Tecpatl (flint knife)

~a