(no subject)

So it's interesting, in the light of The Move, to see the career meme pop up. Also interesting to see just how many people on my friends list have leapt on it - even those with apparently fulfilling careers. Both those like myself, who wander between careers as the mood takes us, and those who've known what they want to be since they were very young (Dink!).

I went and did it, despite knowing they wouldn't have "Carnie" or even "Circus rigger" on the list. And, you know, not bad. I wonder if the list of questions is always the same, and in the same order, or if there are decision trees in there. Anyway. I'm only going to share the bits I thought were interesting.

1) Commercial diver.
2) Race car mechanic

I was actually chatting this morning with someone who'd written off to Cirque to apply when they were building O in Vegas. O is the water show, and this guy is not only a commercial diver, but a commercial dive trainer, and entertainment rigger. It's not, actually, an unusual skillset - there's one person in Melbourne who springs immediately to mind, but it ain't him, it's someone else. And I was reminded this morning that learning to dive has always been on the list of things to do, and for me, "learn to dive" pretty much automatically becomes "so I can be a coded underwater welder" or "so I can be a rigger/diver", rather than "so I can paddle about on weekends". If you're going to invest thousands of dollars and a lot of time in a skillset with very expensive gear, at least make it a tax deduction. So commerical diver is actually on the list.

And race car mechanic. I'm not, actually, very *good* with motorbikes, but I want to be. And I think "race car" (or bike) mechanic, rather than just plain auto-mechanic is quite a clever subtle distinction on the part of this little script. No, I am not interested in the rote replacement of parts on stock cars that have been compromised by their owner's inability to understand them. Which may be why I'm not so good with my own bikes :) What interests me is, indeed, not so much high-speed, but high-performance - the mechanical engineering side of it.

And so the list goes - aircraft mechanic, ironworker. At number 20 and 28, respectively, lighting technician and set designer kick in.

That's a long way down the list.


And I think I know why, but I'm going to think about it a bit longer. Feel free to put forward theories, I'm interested in your input.

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Apropos, morganjaffit asked some questions.

1. Where haven't you been that you'd like to go (Macau excepted!)
Well, Macau is just a stepping stone to the rest of China and Japan, which is the top of the list. San Francisco is also a little too obvious to mention, but Africa would be top of the list after China.

2. What are the three most important things you're going to pack on your trip?
Boots. Bottle of Body Shop sandalwood perfume oil. Soldering iron.

3. Have you looked into your living conditions once you're there? Will you have a shed?
Unlikely :( It's all apartments over there, so we'll either be sharing an apartment, or have a tiny one of our own. And without a decent kitchen - apparently no-one in Macau really cooks, everyone eats out. Broadband is cheaper, though! After the crazy bump-in, my hope is that I'll have access to the Cirque mech. workshop ....

4. What makes you happy?
A cold beer after a hard shift with a good crew. Building something. Sleep. Looking forward to sleep. bunnikins.

5. There's no business like show business - why?
There's a saying they have in the SCA - "In Service to The Dream". That pretty much sums it up, I think. This question and the last one have been holding me up on replying to this, because it's hard, and I wanted to get it right, but I think that's it. It's not *just* the building of things. It's certainly not the building of useful, practical things - that does have a certain pride, but not the same thrill. It's ... building a dream. Something solid from which comes something transcendental and ephemeral. I'm not terribly cerebral when it comes to "Art" - I'm not, these days, into intellectually challenging, highbrow work. So circus is perfect, because circus is visceral, physical. It's a much deeper connection straight to what it means to be human and fragile and childlike and joyful.

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Which comes full circle to the original meme. There's an art and a craft in set design, and lighting tech, but there's no *building*. Even in mech/carp work, what you're building is an illusion. It's the mechanics, the automation, the making things move that gets me. Set designers work with "what should move and when", but not, so much, the how. Obviously it's a concern, but almost by very definition, the "design" element lifts them above grubby overalls covered in hydraulic fluid and bearing grease. At the other end, just installing the things isn't so crash-hot either. Somewhere in the middle there, turning a drawing into metal, is where I want to be.

Which is what ultimately frustrates me in the whole learning to draw thing. I'm not just frightened of failing to be able to draw. At the moment, I can tell myself that I have fabulous art in my head that I could build if only I could draw it. If I learn to draw, I'm almost certain that I'll discover that that's not the case, because really, in all the media of creation I have at my disposal, I shouldn't need to draw something to build it. But I'm actually remarkably comfortable with that. I'm more than happy turning someone else's vision into reality. Service to the Dream. It's ok. I'm not a designer - don't really want to be. I'm a craftsman. And some day I'm going to be an engineer.

jai.
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