About that Plane Designer Job

Tonight, I saw an ad for a "High-Level Plane Designer" in Shanghai and I thought it would be fun to apply. So, below you'll find the job description and then after, my cover letter. Wish me luck!

Position description:

1.Analysize the demand of goal customer and understands the intention of customers fully.

2.the corresponding advertisements propaganda material and other demonstration work in the creation design project plan.

Position request:

1, below 35 years old, above arts and design class specialized faculty school record

2, five years the plane project work experience, has the knowledge of plane design, the advertisement, making lithograph plates and the printing ; Has the rich design experience of brand demonstration, the large-scale convention and so on, can design independently and also coordinate the team work, can achieve the idea and the effect unification;

3, the creativity are rich, have the unique design idea as well as comprehensive carry out ability, can complete the project independently;

4, use plane design software skilled and skilled in the computer related operation;

5, has the good handpainted effect chart ability and the strong color feeling;

6, has the good language competence and communication ability, patient,careful, and pursues perfectly, can withstand the strong working pressure.

My Cover Letter

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am responding to your ad in enjoyclassifieds.com for a High-Level Plane Designer. I am quite excited to apply for this position and hope you feel that my qualifications and experience are suitable.

I am 28, from the United States (Berkeley, California), and am quite proficient in all aspects of designing planes. During college, I studied plane design and became quite familiar with the major manufacturers and models of planes used in the world today.

I am not only familiar with high-level planes, but also low-level planes. While commercial planes are my specialty, I have also learned military plane design. In college, I interned with Boeing and learned about the best ways to design planes. For instance, the wings must be long enough, otherwise the plane will not fly.

After college, I went to Europe to work for Airbus and learned even more about planes. There, I learned many software programs used to design planes. I was considered very creative by my boss, and I even handpainted the planes I designed. From your description, I can see that handpainting will also be important at your company. Therefore, I am very excited about this job opportunity. In addition to handpainting, I also introduced other creative ideas such as installing very small microwave oven at every seat for making popcorn, and also covering the walls with feathers so they would be more softer. Clients were very surprised by these ideas. I think they liked these ideas very much, because I was not fired after they saw the new prototypes.

The job description also mentions creating propaganda, and I am sure I will be very good at this. As you know, every citizen of every country is used to reading much propaganda from the government from a very young age. For instance, since I was a boy, I learned that the president is honest and a good person, but as we all have seen with the current president, this is only government propaganda.

Please tell me what kind of propaganda you would like me to write, and it will be my pleasure to write it. I am looking forward to handpainting this propaganda on the planes that I design for you.

Thank you for your consideration and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Ron Elkayam
Shanghai PRC

Tibet Censorship

I have a friend who is in Dharamsala, India right now, the location of the Tibetan government in exile. He's gone there to do some spiritual searching, but just mentioned in an email that the current situation is "not exactly conducive to engaging with young monks about the origin of the universe." I suppose that right now, the spiritual wisdom can be found in what is happening in the current turmoil in Tibet.

On Sunday morning, I got a text message from a Canadian friend. "Is CNN blocked, or is it just me?" I tried to log on and couldn't. I assumed Chinese censors were blocking the site. However, later on in the day, I was able to read the news on CNN. Youtube, though, was blocked. Just for fun, I decided to read Xinhuanet, the State news presence on the net, and wasn't surprised by the party line.

It's reminding us foreigners that we're living in an authoritarian dictatorship.

Bjork was here in concert a few weeks ago, and after her last song started yelling, "Tibet, Tibet." Most people, I heard, didn't understand what she was talking about because the word for "Tibet "in Chinese is different. Afterwards, the government condemned her action as illegal, and apparently has its eyes open for similar "stunts" by foreign performers.

Letting Go

Lately, I've been spending time looking for wisdom on the web. Actually, I think there's a lot of wisdom on the web if you know where to look, and if you do so with a critical eye.

Yesterday, I found the site of well-known teacher, Adyashanti , who lives in Bay Area. I have a few friends who used to go and listen to him talk and always spoke highly of him. He is a former Zen practitioner. I haven't heard him speak much, but I just downloaded an excerpt of a talk of his, and I think it is very helpful.

In it, he explains the importance of letting go, of not trying to control your life. What a concept. It's the opposite of the way most everyone lives their lives. This is the way I aspire to live my life, and I hope others can come to this understanding as well. It sure is liberating.

Maybe you've come to my blog today for a reason. Maybe you need to hear his words of wisdom.

Check it out:



This video is copyrighted, but I am not making any money off of this, and just trying to benefit people, like you. So, I would like to pray that Adyashanti does not sue me for posting his video here. Actually, I read on his site that Adyashanti is sick, so I would like to send him many blessings for healing.

Toys in Front of IKEA

Yesterday, I take the subway to IKEA. I walk underground for a while until I emerge at exit 5, and walk a block to the big, big store. It's more like a church, and I when I need to go their to pray to the gods of domestic consumption, I try to go on a weekday. In some way, it's very nourishing, which is why I suspect that this church is much more attended than most churches around the world.

I return the pillows with Swedish names that I bought last week and then return to the subway. Just in front of IKEA are people with small carts and goods spread on the sideway, selling things that they think IKEA shoppers might like, like plates and foldup laundry hampers with colorful, modern designs.

As I cross the street, there is a young, dark-skinned man, probably in his late 20s, squatting on the grass beside the sidewalk. He is wearing a suit, which is pretty much the standard uniform of most adult men in Shanghai, even if they are from the countryside. These suits are usually a little dingy and the coat and pants sometimes don't match. They are best worn with sweaters and beat-up shoes.

On the sidewalk in front of him is a flat piece of brown cardboard, and on it are about eight or ten small wind-up toys. They are all about the size of a ping-ping ball, in different colors. You wind them up and they walk. He is tending to his wind-up toys, making sure they are all doing their assigned exercise for the evening. I bet you they each sell for 3 kuai (50 cents) a piece, and if he sells a few of them, he could eat a good bowl of noodle soup tonight.

The Ice Cream-Eating Girl

I am walking one of the long underground passageways near People's Square station and I notice several girls eating ice cream as the walk toward the subway entrance. There's a mall food court that connects to the passageway, and there is certainly an ice cream shop there. Even on the coldest Shanghai nights, I always see them eating their ice cream. They are always young girls. I have never seen a boy eating ice cream in this passageway.

Tonight's featured ice-cream eating girl, in her early twenties, is holding her cone in one hand, her cell phone in another. She's not fat, but you can tell that she likes ice cream.

She stops and holds the cell phone in front of her, and she holds her ice cream cone in front of her mouth, like she is about to eat some. She is taking a picture of herself. Before she snaps her ice cream picture, she sticks out her tongue slightly. Curiously, she doesn't smile. Perhaps she is embarrassed to smile like this in public, or this is for her boyfriend and she thinks not smiling would make her look a little sexier. As I pass her, she clicks her cell-phone camera and continues on her way.

Neighbors

I wake in the morning, and while I am pouring my tea, and hear the clop, clop, clop of the woman running down the stairs of my apartment building as she does every morning at around 8:30, rushing to work. I look at the window in my kitchen, waiting for her to appear out of the front door to our building. She is always carrying something, a department store bag filled with something, and always leans forward the same way as she sprints out the door, like she's got a lot to do today. I never see her face.

For the first time, looking up from my kitchen window, I notice an older man on his balcony three or floors up in the building across from me. He is standing, leaning on the railing, taking his morning drags of his cigarette. I am far away from him, looking through screen mesh, so I don't worry about being spotted. He is lost in thought, or perhaps worry, or maybe at peace, or maybe inspired. I think that cigarette is his friend, his meditation, and this moment perhaps nourishes him in some way, making the time until his next cigarette a little more bearable, maybe even enjoyable.

Yesterday, I am walking one of the long underground passageways near People's Square station and I notice several girls eating ice cream as the walk toward the subway entrance. There's a mall food court that connects to the passageway, and there is certainly an ice cream shop there. Even on the coldest Shanghai nights, I always see them eating their ice cream. They are always young girls. I have never seen a boy eating ice cream in this passageway.

Tonight's featured ice-cream eating girl, in her early twenties, is holding her cone in one hand, her cell phone in another. She's not fat, but you can tell that she likes ice cream.

She stops and holds the cell phone in front of her, and she holds her ice cream cone in front of her mouth, like she is about to eat some. She is taking a picture of herself. Before she snaps her ice cream picture, she sticks out her tongue slightly. Curiously, she doesn't smile. Perhaps she is embarrassed to smile like this in public, or this is for her boyfriend and she thinks not smiling would make her look a little sexier. As I pass her, she clicks her cell-phone camera and continues on her way.

Yesterday, I take the subway to IKEA. I walk underground for a while until I emerge at exit 5, and walk a block to the big, big store. It's more like a church, and I when I need to go their to pray to the gods of domestic consumption, I try to go on a weekday. In some way, it's very nourishing, which is why I suspect that this church is much more attended than most churches around the world.

I return the pillows with Swedish names that I bought last week and then return to the subway. Just in front of IKEA are people with small carts and goods spread on the sideway, selling things that they think IKEA shoppers might like, like plates and foldup laundry hampers with colorful, modern designs.

As I cross the street, there is a young, dark-skinned man, probably in his late 20s, squatting on the grass beside the sidewalk. He is wearing a suit, which is pretty much the standard uniform of most adult men in Shanghai, even if they are from the countryside. These suits are usually a little dingy and the coat and pants sometimes don't match. They are best worn with sweaters and beat-up shoes.

On the sidewalk in front of him is a flat piece of brown cardboard, and on it are about eight or ten small wind-up toys. They are all about the size of a ping-ping ball, in different colors. You wind them up and they walk. He is tending to his wind-up toys, making sure they are all doing their assigned exercise for the evening. I bet you they each sell for 3 kuai (50 cents) a piece, and if he sells a few of them, he could eat a good bowl of noodle soup tonight.