So, as some may already know, The Song of Jonas was released to acclaim recently, not wide acclaim, more like narrow acclaim, aimed in a specific direction, namely by me, meaning that I need to do another draft. Sorry to anyone who went in with the understandable expectation that this would blow their top, knock their socks off, change their life, unplug them from the Matrix, and everything else wonderful that we want to happen when he uncrack a brand spanking new book, open it and challenge the writer by asking “okay, dude, sir, mam, entity, make me like this.” Or more succinctly; “How is this good?”
And knowing that I didn’t reach that goal, at least not in my eyes, means that I have reached the point that I and many other authors before me have reached, in that we need to do ANOTHER draft. “Not another one!” we think, hoping that somehow there was a fluke and what we thought was good really was good even though it’s apparent that it wasn’t very good. And knowing this, you can identify with the cartoon below.
But fear not! I am still in Ultrasound school at the moment, but this is the last quarter of classwork, and when it’s done I will launch myself head and furiously typing fingers first into rewriting The Song of Jonas and making the best little book that started out mediocre and then knocked people’s socks off and blew their tops, frying their brains on laser beams of creativity coming at a billion meters a second straight through your third eye, around their cerebral cortex, carving channels of joy and weirdness along the way, and then exiting through the medulla oblongata like a tweaking bat out of hell.
Below is a highly exaggerated and fictionalized photo of me working on the new incarnation of The Song of Jonas:
Now, an update on Ultrasound school, aka The Bellevue College sleep deprivation, brain smashing gauntlet that will hopefully poop us out as well adjusted and informed, mature members of the healthcare community.
It’s been a whirlwind of tests, studying until my eyes bled, then bandaging my eyes and trying to study more, all while falling upwards in the practical laboratory aspect along the curve of learning, which goes a little something like this: phase one-you know nothing, phase two- you know a little bit, phase three-you think you know something. You are done with classroom work and enter your clinical rotation. Phase four-again, you realize you know almost nothing, phase five-you graduate from clinicals and think you know something, phase six-fast forward to five years of actually working as a sonographer-you actually know something. Below are some photos of people that I think are funny and randomly highlight my Ultrasound experience so far.
This girl didn’t want her picture taken. But I took it anyway to highlight the momentous occasion of her eating Indian food for the first time.
This girl we caught sleeping outside and piled as many little model babies as we had on top of her.
That’s me getting a little frisky with one of the model baby’s. I think I’m sucking its thumb, but you can’t truly be sure with things like that.
This is me taking a snapshot of the action to catch the wildlife in as much of a natural state as possible. They were asked to take notes on what was written on the board, and since everyone has these things called “smartphones” now, even me, the last person in Seattle to get one, they just take pictures of the board. Fascinating specimens if you ask me.
And this final photo is of me enjoying the sunshine, or at least my spirit animal getting outside and enjoying the sunshine in the only way that a spirit animal should.
Sorry for the long time away, I’ll do better next time.
Until then, Sayonara and Peace
Jake
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