In other news...

I'm on the cutting edge of transportation technology. I can't talk about it right now, and maybe not for quite a while, but I'm editing a multi-million dollar proposal that has something to do with "engine stuff." The proposal is to secure $X million to develop brand-new technology that may just solve our dependence on foreign oil. Normally this is where I'd write "No, not really," but I seriously mean it. And I'm not talking about some whacked-out, pie-in-the-sky theory that Ralph Nader might endorse. I'm not talking about cow-shit powered buggies here. I'm talking about something that's just barely coming onto the market, but has yet to be fully developed.

But let me be clear--I have absolutely ZERO connection to the actual development of this technology. I just happen to know an engineer who needed a professional proposal writer to put another pair of eyeballs on his proposal. He and his team comprise a brain trust whose intellectual wattage could power D.C. for a month. How did I, a martini-drinking, vaguely effeminate wanna-be cowboy and liberal arts major come to know such a guy? Well, I broke up with my girlfriend just before she was accepted into the Catholic Church (long story--short version: I was an idiot) and she needed a sponsor. Fr. K. knew a solid Catholic woman in the parish who could fill that role, which she did. That woman became a good friend. Her husband was the engineer. I ended up marrying that ex-girlfriend. Life is funny.

Anyway, I'm making thirty bucks an hour to translate Engineer-ese to English. Not bad work, although I really wish I was out there working my muscles with some moves.

If we manage to land the grant, (isn't it cute how I said "we?") "we'll" get millions of dollars to make some cool trucks. I'll probably see approximately $Squat, but hey, I'm happy to bathe in reflected glory.