Pillars and Columns: The End of an Article #5

This bit of Pillars and Columns was inspired by the media coverage and also watching Mr Robot (I actually paused it and started writing out the dialogue). I'll always appreciate feedback (even if it's embarrassing) so please drop me a line anyway your heart desires.

The End of an Article

Jonathan opened the door and there they sat. Anna behind her wooden desk that ran the length of the editor’s office; Crawford was sitting in one of the guest chairs facing the door. Jonathan sat down in the empty chair unsure of who to align his shoulders with—his mentor or his boss. Crawford looked to Anna, she nodded solemnly, “We can’t run the story. We suggest you take on something new.”

                Jonathan knew this was coming. The way Crawford avoided him in the morning and the general silence of the seventh floor. A story like this would have been talked about if people knew about it. Since the start of the day he had an argument ready: “You’re not giving me another story! This is what I need. This is the story that will take the wool off everyone’s eyes. People don’t know it but they need it, Crawford, you have to have my back here.”

                Crawford had his hands resting on the arms of his chair. Before he spoke he raised them up and laced his fingers together, making a steeple below his face. “Jonathan,” he sighed, “I’ve been here a long time. I have found stories likes this that I thought would change the world. I’ve been in your shoes before and nothing changes.

                “Stories are microcosms of the world, and I have been so wrapped up in my own, still to this day, that it becomes my world. That’s the beautiful flaw of journalism: we dissect and scrutinise this little particle of the city to share and try to emphasise the impact it will have on the world. But no one wants to have their eyes opened this way when they read the paper-”

                Jonathan slapped the arm of his chair, “Historically this is unheard of, it has to be taken seriously! Ray Liago is using people like his ancestors had before him. He needs to be stopped. It’s our duty to tell people about this.” 

                Crawford slid forward in his chair and calmly continued, “In all fairness you’re right and if I had this piece when I was your age I would feel the exact same way as you.” Jonathan was starting to nod, “But this is a different era, it’ll be spoofed, validated, satirised, and replicated until the facts are completely distorted.”

                “To add onto what Mr Powell is saying,” Anna interrupted, “There is a glaring hole in your story. No woman matching your description was found in Mr Liago’s mansion when the police searched. Even with a recording of him stating it, lawyers will say it is not admissible because he’ll claim he was inebriated.”

                Jonathan rolled his eyes, thinking of the drunk and pathetic businessman, “Because he killed her.”

                “Stop speculating, Mr Bayer. That’s not what we do here.” Anna reminded him. 

                “Regardless,” Crawford continued. “This story is juicy, and that’s not good. It’s almost too unbelievable to be true. Everyone will be on this. And the more it replicates the more questionable the story itself will become. Liago isn’t poised enough to be knocked down like this. People are already talking about him: his wife is leaving him and his children don’t like him. He isn’t very good at his day job either.”

                “I don’t care. I’m running the story. Even if it’s somewhere else.” Jonathan said staring at Anna as she read on her screen.

                She looked up at Jonathan, “Mr Bayer, we feel that given the circumstances surrounding the Chronicle and this piece, it would be best if the Chronicle wasn’t associated with your story.” She paused to make sure he was following, “By which we mean if you were to publish this under your name, you would be asked to resign.” Anna looked at Jonathan with her grey eyes, “If you were to refuse we’d have to fire you.”

                Johnathan looked at Anna then Crawford, who was staring at the floor. Jonathan looked back at Anna, ready to jump out of his skin. Uncovering a man harbouring a slave in the 21^st century and they didn’t want a piece of it. Then he thought back to what Crawford had said. This story is just the beginning, he thought to himself, the actual story is the end of Liago. The thoughts in his mind spread out like a spider web. Jonathan blinked and focused back to Anna. “You won’t have to do that,” he said with a narrow smile.    

The Leafs!

Big ups to Auston in the skills competition. It was a busy week I didn't get to watch any actual games. They're 1 point back of Boston and third place with 5 games at hand. There are a lot of good teams that are still behind us that can go on a streak so I'd be happy if we kept up this pace even if we didn't make the playoffs. Here's to settling.  

#4 Personal Legends

This post is prompted by The Alchemist. When I started reading this book about a week and a half ago I was really into it. A young man, living a simple life, decides to travel across the sea to find treasure and his Personal Legend. The beginning was really full with lines that cut into you and motivate you to see the world. Personally, it made me feel like I was doing the right thing travelling around the world. There were parts in the story I really responded to and also one moment in the story that reminded me of one of my favourite moments in any book*. Overall this book is very well written and is uplifting... until the end or so I thought.

Spoiler Alert: If you plan to or haven't finished reading The Alchemist I suggest you don't read any further. The Leafs blurb is at the bottom. 

As a traveller and someone who enjoys exploring the world, the ending of Coelho's story really upset me. When the boy is in a hole battered and bruised after being brutally beaten by strangers he is told that the treasure he is seeking is back where the story started. WHAT!

Now as I'm writing (and editing), I am revising my argument and reflecting on all aspects of the novel. There are points in the story where he does benefit from travel: he discovered other people who have obtained their own Personal Legend, learned how to listen to his heart, found love, spoke to the wind, the sun, and the soul of the world, and understood how the whole planet is connected. Most of those things are valuable life lessons, but my generation learned that last point from The Lion King. It is a great coming of age story and I recommend everyone read it simply to experience the eloquence of Paulo Coelho's writing.   

I really, really loved The Alchemist and was very hopeful, like always that there'd be an amazing ending. When the boy was told that his treasure was back in the church, it basically stated all you need to survive is where you were born. If he had dug under the sycamore tree he would have been rich, and nothing more. By going on his adventure he became a wonder all his own. When the man on the hill by the pyramids tells the boy of his dream I muttered, "You've got to be kidding me."

Now I look at it with a new perspective: I've been writing other stuff that's all over the place and in a way that helps me clear my mind. I am happy with the message I've gotten out of this book. But like any piece of literature, the reader takes what they want to take out of the book. Still, travel does change a person, it makes them more worldly and appreciative of what they have. Just like Santiago missing his sheep, I miss living in the places I've already stayed. Unlike him, I haven't run into gipsies, kings, and alchemists that have helped guide me to my Personal Legend. Literature has done that**. And I'm getting closer and closer to that point where the omens are going to leave me be.

As much as I love teaching I need some sort of change in my life. If it is a complete career shift or a new challenge to face I'd take either. Going back to my resolutions though I really want to start taking more risks, and travel is the beginning of that and I hope it will spiral.  

     

*This book is Patrick Rothfuss's second book in The Chronicle of the Kingkiller sSeries: A Wise Man's Fear. This, one of my personal favourite moments in reading, was when Kvothe channels his powers and goes on a killing spree using his magical powers in the thick of a rain storm to take down a camp of enemy soldiers. Obviously, this doesn't do the event justice because this is a footnote.

**There are lots of books I could say that have inspired me to write more. For now, I'll just recommend The Element by Sir Ken Robinson, it talks about finding those people who love the same things as you and how that generates the best results for whatever it is you love to do.

The Leafs!

Morgan Rielly missed the game against the Rangers and the Leafs looked like a completely different team. Mo is a key piece to the Leafs, and his return shouldn't be rushed. The team's winning percentage is great and I thought we could give Rielly a week to rest and make sure he's 100%. Then I saw the quality of our defence without the alternate captain. Gardiner is still a liability when he's matched up against the best players but he's the best candidate to fill in for Rielly. 

The Rangers game was pretty tough to watch. Apart from Hyman's short-handed goal, the Rangers held most of the momentum and didn't give a lot up to Leafs. They were obviously very motivated after losing in their own barn to the Leafs earlier this month. I was surprised Corrado was in the line-up as opposed to Marincin. 

The battle of Ontario was disappointing. One of the commentators alluded that Sens coach Guy Boucher was playing for the shootout since the Leafs have scored a measly 6 times (one last night) all season. Honestly, if the shootout is the team's Achilles Heel, I'm okay with that. We could have a horrible powerplay or penalty kill. 

    

Pillars and Columns: Another Day #3

"Pillars and Columns" was this huge idea for a writing piece I had when I was sitting in a hospital bed in the fall of 2013. It was about 2 guys, Jonathan and Miles, and their adventures in the big city as journalists (Miles isn't always a journalist though). Basically, everything in my notebooks and word documents is written in script format because I like that style. I leisurely churned out about 150 pages of writing and added some characters over my time in Korea. In 2015-6 I wanted to get back to writing about this little world I had floating in my head. To get it all out I wrote my ideas on these cue cards of Miles, Jonathan and the 5 other main characters and sticky-tacked to my living room wall listing the things I wanted to happen. That didn't really amount to much. The task itself was daunting and I had so many questions and self-criticism of how everything would arc and fit together that I ended up just spinning my wheels when I ever I looked at that stupid wall. Then on my vacation in 2016, I forgot about the wall and wrote about one character and it felt manageable. That's going to be how I move forward with this project. One path at a time and paste it all together eventually.

Now I'll do my best not to cheat and churn out something I have already written, but there might be some instances where I just feel like revising old stuff and sharing it (call it report writing season).

The Leafs blurb is at the bottom.

Another Day

           Miles woke up in confusion. This was his bed, wasn't it? Yes, it was. The walls were off-white, the floor was covered with plaid patterns and other stuff. This was his room. Nothing had changed. He rolled his neck slowly and coughed a dry cough. He needed water and a shower.

          Once he was out of the shower he felt a little better, but his head was still buzzing. He grabbed a comb out of the red plastic cup on the bathroom sink and slid it across the top of his head. He looked in the mirror and tried to rub the redness out of his eyes. What a weekend, he thought.

          Through the bathroom door, he heard a shout and the thud of the heavy front door. At the sound, he remembered for the second time in five minutes that it was Monday. He jumped into his room to put on the only shirt left on a hanger and dusted the crumbs off a pair of jeans on top of a pile of clothes. As he was on his way out he smelled the coffee in the kitchen. He grabbed the handle of the coffee pot and put it up to his face. He didn't think it would be very hot. "Uhh!" he gurgled, "My tongue."

          "Would it kill you to use a mug?" Marcy said standing behind him.

          "No time, I'm running late. Later Marcy." He said as he slid past her, "Thanks for making the coffee!"

          Marcy rolled her eyes as the door shut behind her.

          Miles was walking straight into the sun towards the subway.  As he shuffled his feet down the steps to the subway. He felt around his pockets for a token. No luck. He opened his wallet and saw two crumpled bills and an ATM receipt for $300, "Freaking overdraft," he muttered to himself. Thankfully both bills were tens. He bought a token and hopped on the train to work.

          The ride was uneventful. He thought about a story to tell, explaining his lateness, and why he had literally no ideas for a story. Jonny would have something for him. Hopefully. So long as Crawford wasn't there to pressure him into being ethical, again. Lacy's probably the better bet, he thought. Miles slid into the elevator and combed his hair with his fingers. His eyes were clearing up.

          He got out of the elevator on the 6th floor and walked to his desk making sure the coast was clear. Lacy and Abdullah were already sitting down typing.

          "Morning guys,"

          Abdullah nodded without taking his eyes off the computer.

          "You look like shit," Lacy remarked.

          "Just happy to be alive," Miles said as he fell into his chair, "Do you have any Advil, Lace?"

          Lacy opened the bottom drawer of her desk and passed him a small bottle. "You're going to have to buy your own bottle soon Miley, I don't need them anymore."

          "Really? Lacy is cleaning up her act? Is the Pope coming into town?"

          "No, I'm just sick of Abdullah throwing stones at me."

          Abdullah nodded again still looking at the computer screen.

          Miles's computer had finally warmed up. He opened his explorer and started scrolling around looking for anything. "You find anything today?"

          Lacy didn't pay any attention,

          "Either of you?"

          Abdullah didn't nod.

          Miles rolled his eyes and spun around in his chair. "New restaurants," "New coffee shops," "Hipster fads," "Hangover cures," Miles could barely read the green URLs on his Google searches between the pulses inside his skull. He stood up slowly and walked to the water cooler. He grabbed a paper cup out of the dispenser and rested his head against the cooler as the cool water came out. He drank three cups before Anna Curry came out of the elevator.

          She walked out in her modest heels, wearing all black. Her light brown hair was in a tight bun that didn't bob. She stared around the room looking at all the wide eyes staring back at her. 

          "Mr Norfolk, my office, now." She said as she turned around and walked back into the elevator.

          Miles frantically walked back to his desk to grab the loose papers out of his drawer. 

          "You're in for it now Miley," said Blake Hinkleman, the sports columnist, as he jumped out of his cubicle. "Just like the Rangers are when they come into to town today! You know what I'm talking about, right, Abdullah!"

          "Yes," said Abdullah still staring at his computer, "Cashner is starting. His ERA is awful. The middle of our order will crush them like the camel crushes the ant," 

          "My, fucking man," without looking Abdullah sticks up his hand to high-five Blake Hinkleman, "Anyways, Miley, you're toast."

          Miles was already in the elevator. He was starting to sweat. The elevator opened and Miles glanced at the closed blinds of the Editor's office, then looked to his right at the row of cubicles along the wall. He could see Jonathan wearing his noise-cancelling headphones and no Crawford Powell in sight. He quickly walked towards Jonathan's desk without looking back. Once Miles got into his friend's cubicle he ducked down and tapped Jonathan on the arm. 

          Jonathan took off his headphones and looked down at Miles, "What can I do for you?"

          "Curry's on me again, man." he whispered handing off his sloppy pile of notes, "This is all I have, what should I start with?"     

          Jonathan flipped through them "Half of these are dated over a week ago. and the newest ones are about two lines." Jonathan handed them back to Miles, "Best bet is to charm her."

          "You say that like it's easy." Miles whisper-yelled.

          Jonathan shrugged.

          "Just give me something, Jonny, please. I really need this."

          "Crawford mentioned his kids are selling magazines out of their school, that might be something."

          Miles didn't know it then, but Jonathan could have told him there's a new rat at the zoo and that story would have sounded like a brilliant one too. Desperation always skews perspective. Miles patted Jonathan on the back and walked towards Anna Curry's office with a big stupid smile.  

          "Sorry, I'm late Miss Curry. I was just organising all these stories I have." Miles said sitting down across from his editor. 

          Without looking up from other articles, Anna Curry extended a hand to which Miles placed his assortment of loose paper. She put her glasses on and started rifling through them. Once she had gone through the pile she straightened it out on her dark desk. 

          "Do you have anything else?"

          "Yeah, actually, there's a school that's selling magazines."

          "What's the school called?"

          Miles opened his mouth but nothing came out. 

          Anna looked at him with unaffectionate eyes and sighed, "Run with the old man who works at the convenience store uptown." 

          "Really? You like that one?"

          "Not particularly. Go and find out if he has a war story or a grandchild with a little league trophy."

          "Okay, thanks, Miss Curry."

          Anna dismissed him with a wave of her hand. 

          The trip to the convenience store was fifteen stops away from the Chronicle's office. In that time, Miles managed to write down two questions.

How old are you?

What's your story?

He was quite impressed with himself; he thought of the first question before his go-to question.

He got off the subway and walked towards the convenience store. The store looked like any other convenience store, lots of salty snacks and candy bars, fridges with endless amounts of drinks, a Slurpee machine, and a hotdog steamer. The man running the register was white-haired and smartly dressed. Miles extended a hand and introduced himself. 

The clerk nodded slowly and shook his hand at a very slow pace. Miles asked the man his first question and wrote down the answer. Then asked the second question expecting to get a nugget of gold like he had every other time. Instead, the man sat on the stool behind the counter and placed an elbow on his knee, and started to ponder the question.  

Miles was stunned, "What about..." he looked around for something anything to get this old man to talk, "These!" he said picking up a new pack of baseball cards resting on the counter. 

The old man smiled. and from underneath the counter, he pulled out an old 4" binder. He placed it on the counter and wiped off the dust. Miles looked at the man who nodded back at him. Miles hesitantly opened it. The binder full of baseball cards from the 1966 collection.

"Is this the whole set, sir?"

The clerk nodded with a grin. He closed the binder and tucked it under the counter then stood up and whistled, "Look after her for a bit, Billy." the old man said slapping the counter. 

The boy nodded, set down the broom, and walked up to the front of the store. 

"He's my grandson, comes here once and a while to help me out, he says his school will make state. That hasn't happened since I played there," he said as they walked into the backroom. The man turned on a light and walked up to a padlocked door. He reached into his pocket to pull out the key. As the door opened, Miles was blown away by all the memorabilia. He walked around the room, ticket stubs from ball games dating back to the 30's, autographed gloves from the same era. No names registered with Miles, but he just asked one of the simplest questions: "What's this?" and there it was: another story had fallen into his lap.           

The Leafs!

What a weekend! I'm going to talk about my four favourite things that I saw. The Prodigal Son made two fantastic plays Saturday night: one off of the draw and another avoiding a hit behind the goal line. First Matthews "loses" an offensive zone draw and casually jumps behind Pageau and passes the loose puck to Connor Brown in the slot for the insurance marker in the third. Then a couple shifts later he takes the puck down the boards, fakes the pass back to the blueline, then a defender comes into hit him and the chump gets nothing but the boards as Auston spins off of him. I tell you this, even though he didn't have four goals he knows how to the Senators look stupid. The next moment of glory is Zaitsev dropping Dzingel onto the ice, that guy is just full of surprises. Finally, no goals were given up in the third period, even when the Senators pulled Condon. We're just getting better and better.      

   

Sports! #2

Regular Life

This past Thursday I was brought down to Earth yet again. For the second time in my life, I have found out the hard way that playing sports with a competitive edge never ends well for me. I was playing basketball with some other teachers in the gym to end the work week. Personally speaking, basketball has too much contact: rebounding, driving, post-ups, loose balls and just hustling down the floor all create situations for contact. Here in this setting, you don't really expect to get pushed around but there are definitely instances where "Oh, it's just a game," is thrown out the window. Steam gets blown off.

With the intensity competition brings out in people, things do get heated even among colleagues. I'd say that it's healthy and safe if it's controlled and the people know what they're doing.

Here's how it happened: The other team went on what felt like a 12-0 run (I don't keep score) and I said to myself, "Let's get a fast break point here." I didn't know what I was doing and was not used to weaving through people at a high speed on a gym floor. Rightly so, I ran into an opponent because I couldn't juke to the side running at the speed I was going. My jaw made contact with her head. I'd say I got the worst of it. She had to ice the left side of her face while I have 4 stitches in my mouth. I'm happy nothing serious happened after upping the ante.  Lesson learned.

The World Juniors

Even living abroad, I still get my hockey on thanks to NHL Gamecentre. I try my best to get up early for Leaf games and cheer them on, but it's around this time that I really wish there was a World Juniors package because I love that tournament. Even now, with Canada not having gold on lock the tournament is still fun to watch.Not to mention, it gives you a good idea about which rookies can come out of the woodwork for fantasy purposes.

Frankly, this Canadian team wasn't one I had a tonne of confidence in. I was thinking we'd get Bronze. Dylan Strome didn't deserve to be the captain because he's just an over-hyped power forward. The guy drafted after him, Mitch Marner, is in the NHL as are Ivan Provorov, Pavel Zacha, Zach Werenski, Travis Konecny, Noah Hanifin, Mikko Rantanen, Timo Meier, and Lawson Crouse (all of whom were drafted after Strome in the 2015 draft). To salt the wound some more, Arizona doesn't have a tough roster to crack either, their 29th in the standings.

Canada's U-20 team had a lot of awesome players: Thomas Chabot, Matt Barzal, Anthony Cirelli, and Mitchell Stephens top my list. The latter two could have easily earned a letter through the tournament. The coach didn't offer much confidence either. It could be because English isn't his first language and that made him sound like more of a dope than he actually is. The goalie situation wasn't very good either, but Ducharme managed to figure that out to get into overtime in the gold medal game.

There were a couple players on that team that are eligible to play next year and I think Raddysh will captain them in a better manner than Strome. Fingers crossed that playing with Strome all year in the O doesn't soften him up.

The Leafs!*

I haven't really had the opportunity to publicly praise this team. Babs has got his system in place. The team is meshing, I can definitely see the rookies developing and everybody has a role now. The other thing is, it seems like everyone except for Connor Carrick is trusted to play at the end of the game with a lead. Unfortunately, we still can't protect one to the level a playoff team needs to. 

Saturday morning I watched them play the Devils and like the bench, I was pretty content with a 4-0 lead. That's what 15 years of cheering on a team in the basement does. You settle. I'm sure in the years of Mats Sundin I would have been egging them on to get ten goals. 

15 years is a long time and I was pretty happy after game one when Auston "The Prodigal Son" Matthews potted four goals in a losing effort. He is the American Toews and isn't it obvious who you could compare Mitch Marner to? I don't think we have the same setup as the Blackhawks did when they made their run but Toews and Kane didn't win in their first year either. All in good time. If anything crazy would happen (not likely though) look for Nylander to get traded for a veteran scorer in the next year. As for right now, let the boys play.  

Then there are those blue collar kids making their way onto the roster now. Zach "Pink" Hyman, Connor Brown, Soshnikov, and the Goat finally made it up the NHL! I think this is the best part about our team is that we have hardworking guys that know how to play and came up through our system. Hopefully, Shanahan's brain trust has more to come. Not to mention Kadri and Uncle Leo are a great duo that can defend and with Willie Nylander on the other side they can score too. Also, Lou Lamoriello has an eye for goalies. Shooting 3 for 3 right now: drafting Brodeur, trading for Schnieder, and this summer swapping for Freddie Anderson. Anderson is a BIG reason the Leafs are where they are in the standings. 

There is still a long way to go before we're THE team in the Atlantic, but our time will come soon. Apart from Florida and a healthy Montreal, every team is arguably on par with the Leafs or underachieving this season (Tampa). So playoffs are definitely in the cards, not a guarantee, especially with the Metro division looking like they'll take both wildcard spots, but anything can happen... except Colorado making a run from the looks of it. 

I could talk about other things too, like the Cinderella story in Ohio spurred by the return of Tortorella, Connor McDavid and the Oilers, Jagr eclipsing Messier, Sidney Crosby leading the league in goals, as well as Laine's accomplishments and that brutal own goal, but perhaps another post.         

--

I've already started writing my next post but with my lip busting open on Thursday I thought I'd share that and then the post sort of spiralled into sports talk. The next one will be more about my creative writing. Stay tuned folks.



*This might be a weekly section until they stop playing.

      

Resolutions #1

I feel by posting my resolutions, people will make me feel accountable for accomplishing these by the time 2018 rolls around. And here they are:

Learn more Arabic

This is important. When I was living in the [Arabian] Gulf I didn't need to really know Arabic unless I wanted to eavesdrop on my low kids. Now, living where I am, Arabic is much more prominent than English because not as many jobs are outsourced. Another way to look at this is if I still lived in Canada I'd expect immigrants and expats alike to learn English, so obviously I need to do the same as an expat in an Arabic country.

Travel Without a Plan*

This is just something I want to try. A plan is defined as a full plan. Find sleep-shacks when I arrive in a town. Nothing is booked before I touch down. It's kind of exciting, and intimidating, but that's what makes it an adventure. Looking forward, there are two opportunities I'll have to do this and I will book a return flight for just one of the two trips.

Play at least One Open Mic

The last time I played in a bar it was cut short because a string broke and I didn't have any back-ups. I also own a pick-up now and I need to get my money's worth out of my new nameless guitbox. Then if it's fun I'll definitely start doing more. This will also be a new reason to learn new long songs.

Read More

I feel like I do read a lot, it's just a lot of unpublished stuff (life of a teacher) but if you look at the next resolution reading is important for that. After all, art makes art.

52 Blog Posts about ANYTHING

I think if I posted/shared more of my stuff I'd get more feedback and that's what makes someone a better writer. So a post a week is definitely feasible even with the travel. Look for one every Sunday.

Travel for Over a Month*

Again, just something to get out of my comfort zone. I've never traveled for longer than two weeks. Moving around from place to place sounds like such a fun adventure in an unknown land when you aren't sick and the weather's beautiful. It'll probably be France in the summer. Any recommendations will be appreciated.

I guess I don't have any work goals... honestly though, I'm happy where I am with everything in that realm.

Happy 2017 Everyone!

*Travel goals can be accomplished in one trip.