Hello. Wow. It certainly has been a while, hasn’t it? Let’s get to it.
One of my favorite scenes in Fight Club is a conversation between Tyler Durden and well, himself (Sorry for ruining the ending - shame on you for not reading and/or watching it by now), about his father’s guidance in growing up. It goes something like this:
“My dad never went to college, so it was real important that I go. ”
“Sounds familiar. ”
“So I graduate, I call him up long distance, I say “Dad, now what?” He says, “Get a job.”
“Same here.”
“Now I’m 25, make my yearly call again. I say Dad, “Now what?” He says, “I don’t know, get married.”
That scene has been in my head for no less than 6 months. You’re now reading the blog of the newest 2D artist at Play Mechanix, Inc. - an industry leader in coin-operated arcade games. And according to this scene, I’m on step two.
Starting on the 21st of this month, I begin a modest working man’s routine. Modest is a funny word. I think a lot of people might get the wrong idea from me using it just then. A modest job, a modest desk, and a modest paycheck are all that I’ve ever wanted or expected. As sharp and witty as my parents and close friends may tell you Mike Colesworthy can be, he’s never been cut out to be anything more than a team player. Another worker ant trying to give his life some purpose and make himself useful in the grand scheme of things. And I reiterate - that’s what I want. I’m not trying to save the world. I don’t want to shift the paradigm. I don’t want my boss’s job. I just want to get by doing something I enjoy. I want to make my coworkers and loved ones proud of me and stand back, looking at the game I helped make, and quietly share a grin with the person playing it from the other side of the room. I may not have changed the world, but for a little while, in some way, I made someone smile.
A couple nights ago, I finished reading Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk - the author of Fight Club. Nothing has topped Fight Club for me yet, and I’d still put Choke a little higher, but regardless, it was a good read. I’m not about to claim to be the fastest or most dedicated reader, but I’ve admired Chuck’s work for several years now - not because his books are particularly inspirational or emotional, but because his characters aren’t the heroes everyone else writes about - they’re us. They’re flawed. They have diseases and addictions. They have impure thoughts and sometimes, they act on them.
Most importantly, they’re dry and they’re analytical. You could say it’s ironically the lack of complex emotion that makes them so interesting to read about. Social commentary without the fluff. You feel less like you’re watching things happen as a third party and more like you’re experiencing the events first-hand as the person inside their head they can’t seem to stop talking to. You are Tyler Durden.
The reason I bring all of this up is because, as I mentioned in my last post, my life has become somewhat melodramatic. But what I didn’t realize until lately was that the script was written by Chuck. A sort of exploration of the theory “Nice guys finish last.” Whether he decides to prove or disprove it has yet to be determined.
Will landing a job that allows Mike to get paid for playing with his favorite software be enough of a distraction from his personal life to keep him happy for a while? Will working full-time in a predominately male industry make meeting girls even harder - forcing Mike to be “that old single guy”? Has the girl of his dreams been under his nose the entire time? Let me know, Chuck - I’m excited to find out.
P.S. One more quote that’s been stuck in my head lately…
“Do I think I’ll be invited to the wedding…” - Jim Halpert