The return of Bill Nye

So I popped in a CD of Cajun music this morning and they started singing in french. Not just french, but funny, hillbilly french. Cajun music is already 100 times more bouncy and fun than other kinds of American folk music and this, the goofiest french in the whole world, was the cherry on top.
Then I went and enjoyed a sandwich called a po-boy, which is basically enough meat to feed a third world country stuffed between two slices of french bread. To my surprise the bread was not the french bread you find at Maceys but legit (and delicious) french bread. It reminded me of of the bread in Uruguay, very much after European tradition.
The Cajun people of Louisiana remained connected to their European heritage much longer than our ancestors did. Even when the Cajuns became an autonomous people it still took a long time for them to be assimilated into the the US culture. The moral of the story is that traces of french-european tradition are everywhere. I find it abtholutely fathinating.

I'm sad because the oil spill is going to wreak havoc on New Orleans. In one of my installs the client was watching a documentary on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It absolutely destroyed the local economy around the spill. Bill Nye the Science Guy was on the news chatting with the anchor about the consequences of the spill. At first I wondered why on earth they got Bill Nye of all people, but then I remembered that he knows everything. Anywho, the fates have it in for this poor place.

So yesterday the salesmen only sold 2, so I didn't get to install anything. What did I do? I drew! There really isn't much to report about my own goings ons. When I don't work I go to the library and listen to music on youtube while I practice my drawing. Yep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_peoples
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun

Sick of Shakespeare

So, I never thought I'd get sick of Shakespeare. I'm sick of Shakespeare. The Bard had been accompanying me back and forth on my various trips around the city in the form of performance on CD and I am very ready to not hear Shakespeare for a few years.

So Wednesday last I did my first job solo. The next day I did another one, and then another one, now I've done lots. This morning I installed a system in under 3 hours, which is great because first few took me just under 8 hours each. Each time I did one I saw something completely new that I haven't ever seen before, which was awesome because I got to rack up lots of experience but it was also nasty because learning new things takes time.

People here are really nice, just like people everywhere. They have funny southern accents and EVERYONE has a cute dog. I've also spent a fair amount of money trying the food (which is amazing) and I think I've tried just about everything so now it's time to be thrifty.

The Lost Boys

These last few days have been great. I've been able to go on lots and lots of installs, still shadowing a more experienced technician of course, but I feel as though I'm starting to understand how things work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlv8PUyc1HQ

So this next part is rated PnfG. That means: Probably not for Grandma.

Each office has a lead technician, who is the boss. As a general rule in recruiting lead techs recruit people for their own office. I was recruited by a the lead tech of Kansas City (although he was moved as was I). He was a man of very similar disposition to that of myself, which is the trend that I noticed with lead techs, they hire people like themselves. (This may not be how the system actually works but as far as I can see it is)

To cut to the chase, my lead tech is a man of very loose morals, and has surrounded himself with other such men. They embody all the core values of a musketeer: drinking, wenching, and...umm...protecting the king (if there were one to protect I'm sure they would do splendidly, but seeing as there is not they are forced to preoccupy themselves with the former values.)

So then there is me, who upon meeting my cohorts thought to myself, "Uh-oh." Just as you are probably thinking, "Uh-oh" right now on my behalf. I'll admit I was pretty quick to peg them all as immoral villains but I very quickly learned that they are not. Slowly but surely (in a very Hollywood sort of way) the story of each of my companions has been unfolding before me. Bit by bit I seem to learn who these people are, and with each each morsel of understanding my stereotype of them crumbles away. In fact, I really like these guys.

Some are rebelling, some are hurting, others just want to be accepted; but none of them are evil. They've all got good hearts, and although a good heart is hardly justification for stupid actions I have hope for them. Love the sinner hate the sin has never been more meaningful to me.

As for myself I will be fine. I have made it abundantly clear that my values will not be compromised and they had made it abundantly clear that they will never pressure me. They are good boys. Lost boys, but good boys.

I dun et dem mud bugs!

I have no clue what direction I am facing.
Ever.

So, soon after I sent my last post I did some more exploring of LSU campus. I tracked down the LDS Institute on campus. There was nobody there but I found an open door and made myself at home. After a little while some boys came in and I helped them set up some tables for an activity later on that day, which turned out to be a crawfish boil.


I walked up to the line at the table and I noticed that everyone had the top of a cardboard box. My astounding skills of observation totally failed me and I could not figure out what they were for until someone shoved a box into my arms and then filled it with crawfish. Crawfish are like big shrimp. Or little lobsters. You tear off their tail and then pull it apart in a series of steps until you have a delicious little chunk of meat. It's a finger food...a very messy finger food. A very tasty little morsel.

The next day (Wed) the others still hadn't arrived so I went to the Baton Rouge temple and enjoyed another day of relaxation. Everyone else had been working for a week in Beaumont, Texas, because they were unable to get licensed in Louisiana until this week. They all rolled in around 1 AM, exhausted. I do so love my solitude but it was nice to have some company. Very interesting company I might add. They're a funny bunch. Everything is still getting worked out but I should go installing today, I'll let you know how that goes.

Frog legs and U-Turns

Where in the world is the amazing Mr.Tobey?

Chillin' at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Which I must say is a beautiful school, except for their library, which is ghetto. As I walk around campus I feel like I'm in some medtierranean city, much cooler than grey ole' USU. Except for the library. So what am I doing in Louisiana? If for some reason you don't know, I'm going to be installing securtity systems this summer. I've just spent the last few days driving across the country with my buddy Taylor Rudd, who agreed to accompany me so that I would not get bored.

As far as our drive goes there is not much to report. We drove...lots...and lots. Everytime we stopped the people and their accents got progressively funnier.

Yesterday afternoon Tay Tay and I rolled triumphantly into the party city of the south, New Orleans. We got there around 5 o'clock and decided to see the sights. Little did we know that 5 o'clock is when all the sights close down. It appears that anything that doesn't involve alcohol closes pretty early around these parts.

A local recommended that we go to a restaurant called Mulates, which serves authentic canjun food. The cultural ambience in that place is great. There was a band consisting of very old people playing some awesome canjun music, which is like blue grass but a million times funner. It's a very jazzy country style, done primarily in a bouncy 3/4 time. The waiters had their thick accents and the decor was very southern. Then we got our food...

We ordered a sampler plate, you know, a little bit of everything. Here's what it entailed:

Crawdad legs, crab bits, stuffed mushrooms, fried catfish, grilled alligator, and frog legs.

I'm not going to lie, it was all very delicious, especially the frog legs. They were the perfect combination of chicken and fish, it was amazing. I'm going to see if I can become a frogleg fan on facebook. I also had some gumbo, which was tasty stuff.

After eating we drove around and looked at the city, which for the most part looks pretty modern in the business district. As we got farther out there were some pretty cool old buildings and some big ole' southern manor style homes in all their guilded age glory. The roads in the city are crazy and you can tell they were created not by pioneers but by drunken french guys. Crazy roads lead consequently to crazy driving and we soon learned that the bread and butter of a New Orleans driver is the U-turn. Everyone is U-turning all the time. Which makes me wonder if everyone else was lost too. Or perhaps just drunk. Anywho, this post is already so long that nobody is going to get down this far, so I will bit you all adeiu.