Pretty pretty lights
All fade away behind me
As I travel south.
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Over the past 10 years, I’ve often thought about leaving Nevada and seeing what it’s like to live in a more or less normal state. Don’t get me wrong: there’s a lot of entertainment value in getting text message alerts every time bears come down from the mountains and go dumpster-diving in people’s backyards; ditto for weekly meth lab busts and crazy tourists who either drive 20 miles below the speed limit or try to live out their Fast&Furious fantasies fueled by midlife crises. And then, of course, there’s the Las Vegas Metro, who always try to match LAPD in wanton cruelty and overall stupidity.
Granted, all of the above makes for some great entertainment (especially when viewed from afar, preferably from behind a barricade), but after a while the entertainment value of these shenanigans tends to decrease. Sure, there were some good times as well, but overall I’d probably have to call it a tie.
I’m writing this on the eve of my departure for Texas. It’s a bit funny that my escape from Nevada came from such an unlikely source: a temp job in a warehouse that I took during the mean, lean winter of 2009, when my company was the only one hiring in Northern Nevada. Two years down the road, I transferred to our Las Vegas branch. Then I got promoted and honed my skills to the point where I got picked to be the data analyst at the company’s brand new facility in Fort Worth. Looking back, I find it hard to believe that all of this came from my decision to stand in that long line at the temp agency. That was one weird gamble, but sometimes weird gambles pay off – especially in Nevada.
I suppose I should write about how much I’ll miss Nevada and shed a solitary, manly tear for the state I’ve called home all these years. I don’t really feel like it, though. The departure evokes neither good nor bad feelings. I look forward to meeting Texans and living in a completely different state, but that’s about it. I suppose that’s what Kurt Vonnegut meant when he said “it’s impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn’t interest me.”
Goodbye, Silver State. Hello, Lone Star.
“seeing eye dog” – 615,000 search results on Google
“seeing eye cat” – 291,000 search results
“seeing eye human” – 241,000 search results
“seeing eye octopus” – 15 search results
“seeing eye hedgehog” – 14 search results
“seeing eye guinea pig” – 12 search results
“seeing eye chupacabra” – 8 search results
“seeing eye platypus” – 7 search results
“seeing eye sasquatch” – zero search results
The new school year is about to begin, so it’s time for my biannual giveaway! If you’d like to download a free copy of my bestselling e-book “Go to college without going broke,” go over yonder. And no, you don’t need a Kindle to read it. You can read the e-book on any device, as long as it has an Internet connection and a screen.
What’s the book about? It’s about saving money, getting free textbooks, finding stress-free jobs, having a great spring break for just $20 – and much, much more. Give it a shot! If you like it, feel more than welcome to write a nice, 5-star review and recommend it to all your friends.
The giveaway ends on Tuesday night, August 13th. Enjoy!
“You had me at hello” – 713,000 search results on Google
“You had me at hola” – 32,400 results
“You had me at yo” – 77 results
“You had me at howdy” – 76 results
“You had me at what’s up” – 46 results
“You had me at konnichiwa” – 34 results
“You had me at salutations” – 5 results
“You had me at zdravstvuyte” – zero results
“in front of the enemy lines” – 16,500,000 search results on Google
“behind the enemy lines” – 13,600,000 search results
“under the enemy lines” – 68,700 search results
“above the enemy lines” – 48 search results
“parallel to the enemy lines” – 20 search results
“opposite the enemy lines” – 12 search results
“beside the enemy lines” – 6 search results
“perpendicular to the enemy lines” – 5 search results
“kitty-corner from the enemy lines” – 0 search results
Quite a few people write for a living. Some writers write about writing. In “Grub,” Elise Blackwell takes it one step further and writes about writers who write about writing. (And yes, I’m well aware of the irony of writing a review about a writer who writes about writers who write about writing.)
“Grub” follows the lives of four young writers over a period of five years. Their approaches and personalities differ wildly, from a starving writer who risks his life to save a manuscript, to a business-oriented writer who is in it for the money and fame. The novel switches between the characters’ points of view, but they’re easy to keep track of. Blackwell fleshes out their personalities well enough to avoid having two-dimensional cardboard cutouts some writers end up with when they try to tackle this style.
In addition to the main characters, there are quite a few writers, critics and editors in the background, each with their own storyline. Some of them end up living happily ever after; others, not so much.
This book doesn’t have exciting action scenes or the trendy elements of suspense and intrigue. Instead, it talks about writing: the many different styles, the way authors find (or lose) inspiration, the excruciating process of finding an agent and getting your book published, the devastating impact of bad reviews, etc. Above all, it’s a book about writers themselves: what makes them tick and how one’s success (or failure) can alienate one’s friends.
If you’re at all curious about writing – or writers in general – grab “Grub” and give it a shot. You may very well end up loving it as much as I did.
“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” – 135,000,000 results on Google
“The Girl With The Butterfly Tattoo” – 249,000 results
“The Girl With The Unicorn Tattoo” – 84 results
“The Girl With The Octopus Tattoo” – 29 results
“The Girl With The Panda Tattoo” – 27 results
“The Girl With The Giraffe Tattoo” – 22 results
“The Girl With The Cockroach Tattoo” – 3 results
“The Girl With The Human Tattoo” – 3 results
“The Girl With The T-Rex Tattoo” – 1 result
“The Girl With The Platypus Tattoo” – zero results
Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of my arrival in the United States of America. It was a pretty tumultuous 3,653 days. I feel a bit bad that it had taken me most of that decade to figure things out and get my head on straight, but oh well… I missed out on quite a few opportunities and adventures, but the things I didn’t miss out on were pretty damn awesome: I was briefly stalked by the Secret Service, I almost got killed by an angry mob at a charity raffle, I lost $10,000 for saying “thank you” and then came this close to winning another $10,000 by throwing a basketball 200′ across a river. (It was a matter of inches!) I’ve survived the Mayan apocalypse of 2012 and both terms of the Bush Jr presidency. I’ve gone from sounding like Borat to being interviewed by New York Times about one of my e-books. I’ve gone from being an immigrant with $42 in his pocket to getting paid $10,000 by a Fortune-50 company just for moving to one of their new facilities. I’ve done things that are illegal in some parts of the South and witnessed the sort of breathtaking beauty that most people would be lucky to glimpse in their dreams. I did pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Now on to year 11, the second decade, the next chapter.
Grigory Lukin.com 