Personal Titles and Responsibilities

I've held many job titles and responsibilities in my day. There have been many assignments that have been specifically assigned to me because of my skill set and ability. Some things have fallen into my lap, seemingly just because I happened to be where I was when I was... I realize that to master my potential I have to sort through it, so aren't you the lucky blog reader to have the option to follow me as I sort through the rubble of my life as I strive to make it presentable for the public haha. I realize this is a public forum, but so far only my wife and siblings have seen this blog, so... it's not that public as of now anyway.

Here we go... first memory to current state and Go!

911 Call taker... current. McDonald's three or five stints equalling to about 2-3 years of experience. That fast food experience ties into Subway, Taco Bell, baking and cashiering, cashiering for that little side shop in the same food court as well as I think once at that ice cream parlor next to that shop, once I think at the wrap place as well. Weird. Anyway... Figure modeling for one or possibly two semesters. I would hate to figure model now... anyway. That may be it for jobs. 

Other experience. Boy scout leader, assistant scoutmaster. Young men's second counselor for a year. What else? Volunteer experience... teen library aide. I barely remember that. I think I put books away, participated in decorating for events... I remember the volunteer shirt, but not too much else really. Oh, tunnel singing coordinator. Mission for two years in Brazil... The internship with the Academy for creating Enterprise, I wrote a third of a freaking text book for crying out loud... hmmm... well cub scouts through Eagle. Are those the only volunteer spots I've done. I tutored multiple sections of the algebra class, raising the cumulative gpa of one teacher's entire fold. haha. It was a high fail rate, but people that stuck with me, got like, above 100% on their final grades. I think I had like 107% from getting perfect on all tests and assignments and accepting all extra credit assignments which were designed to supplement the high fail rate for the average mathemater. Wow, spell check didn't stop me from that word. 

Extra currics and sports and clubs. Haha, anime club even if el presidente didn't (Caleb) i remember his name didn't want me in their yearbook photo, even though I went for probably three months almost a full semester. That was before I was famous haha, his supervisor of sorts, as the lead in the school musical, while he had about 40 seconds in the same play and silently resented me for having a role that he auditioned for. hmm... passive aggressive. That anime club came to my mind first even though that was more of a side note than other clubs that played bigger roles in my upbringing...

Choir since first grade until really recently. Ambassadoring to middle schools and going with small groups to speak on their live broadcast networks. Puppet show. Hmm... Christmas blitz every year with the chamber. The Talent Show senior year, organizing and writing that. Weird, I didn't recall before writing this how crazy awesome that experience was. 

Creative Nonfiction

Through the space of a night, I create windows... I build windows into other people's worlds. That's what I do professionally.

That's one life altering way to look at my job.

Through the art of the write, just like a columnist writes columns to make ends meet, even though she is in actuality, a novelist... I am a 911 call receiver who is actually a creator.

Just like a head chef is actually a painter and a sculptor but has chosen the culinary arts profession because people don't always have to look at sculptures, but people will always be eating cake. I get paid to create and write. But what do I create and write?

So many call takers take this for granted, but I am opening the concept right now. I explore this concept out of necessity really. Finding deeper meaning in my job to stay. Staying in this stable job in which I recently mastered and passed through and completed the probationary stage. I am now moving upward and outward. I need to stay, because I have a life, I have a wife, I have a house, independence, I have a son who is 100% reliant on my financial stability. But I was recently, well have been for the last six months, I've been contemplating potential. How can I maximize my skills? That's why I now focus and study the relationship between the necessity of this integral job for the community and my own personal need to create and tell stories.

What stories am I telling? It's nothing fancy or romantic or fantastic by any means, it's actually the nightmares and worst days of people all around me. I verbally... or typonically? Spell check tells me that's not a word... I... well verbally. It's not out loud but verb is another way to say through words, although written rather than said. I use police signals and codes as well as some creative story telling to open a window into the nightmares of people, so that law enforcement can put nightmarish people into jail, write nightmarish reports documenting the citizens worst days, and will use their legal tools to attempt to right the wrongs that caused the nightmare, so that peace can be restored to the community. I guess I highlight flaws in the system, and describe them in a way that the correctors can correctly respond to.

There you have it.

Not only is my job an essential position that needs to be manned 24/7 even in emergency..or rather... especially in emergency situations... not only does this put me into an integral position in the community, one where service and selflessness go first before anything else. This job does more than just build my communicative skills in talking to citizens and writing to police. More than providing for the basic needs of myself, my wife and my son... The job that I have gets to the essence of who I am. 911 operation builds me as a creator. I create short blurbs of nonfiction 12 hours a day.

Creative Story Telling

Lately, I've been contemplating about writing and creation...
Let's just get it out there...
First and foremost, who am I? Deep down within, what am I?
Before all the other labels and organizations and titles and hopes and dreams and failures and experiences... I am a creator.

That may be at the essence of every human being, having been created after the semblance of The Creator... all of us having been given the innate desire and skill to also create.

In this life, in the time since my first walking, no... breath. Since my first breath, what all have I created and left here on the earth?

Many of my dreams, my wildest and most deepest desires, include traveling the world to meet people of all nations and languages, to share a bit of what I created with them. I had a brief taste of this when I served a religious mission in South America. I remember the joy I felt and the satisfaction I gained in sharing pictures of my family and telling stories to people from the southern hemisphere, in a language that I never knew or even really heard of as a child and young man.

I shared stories of growing up as a Filipino having been born in Japan and moved around my entire life through Europe to different coastal cities in America. I shared with the Brazilian people my love for my family and the essence of that which makes me who I am. I shared with them all of my deepest hopes and desires and dreams and invited them to also realize their hopes and dreams. To follow their hearts and to live their lives and existences to the fullest that they possibly can.

Sharing dreams and spreading vision.

That's one thing that brought me so much hope and joy. I remember the happiness I felt in living that every day... My question and goal now is to find how I can continue that... How can I live my potential and multiply all of my greatest creative talents?

In my current employ as a police call taker, I build the skills of communication, typing, phone and computer skills, multi tasking, planning, preparation, geography, map skills, orientation. I do use a little bit of story telling. Through the limited information I gather from my calls, I have to paint a picture of what the officers will expect to respond to, so that they can be dispatched knowing what tools and what back up to expect so that they can best respond to citizen emergencies. I think it is in that limited writing that I do as a full time job, where I am constantly reminded, you know, you Joe Mora, are a writer. In the space of 12 hours every night, I create worlds. I create portals into worlds.

Wow, that kind of blew my mind... I'll open a new post to explore more this idea.

Sparkly Crayon on the Wall

Son One and Son Two are twins in gestation
They live within their mother's belly
They share a wall within their mother's womb

Son Two likes to hold his feet and push against the wall
Son One doesn't like feet and tries to talk towards the wall
Because they are surrounded by amniotic fluid,
The two sons cannot speak vocally to each other.

Son One had a pack of sparkly crayons
He wrote a message for his brother to read on the wall
Son Two was excited to see the message on the wall

Son Two pushed and pushed against the wall,
Pushing was his only way to communicate,
Since he had no sparkly crayons on his side of the wall
Son Two could did not know what the message meant
Because babies in gestation cannot read.

Teach Me To Talk

My baby is two weeks old, last night while my wife was asleep and my son was awake, I held him up to the light so he could see my face, and I thought why not try to teach him how to say, “Good morning, my name is Josiah.”

I was told that newborns don’t usually say their first word until about 8 weeks, and that it’s usually simple like mama, daddy, bottle, milk. food or toy then to work from there. But I’ve been told by other people to not baby talk to my infant…

Treat your child like an responsible, intellectual person, and he will mature and grow into one. It makes sense that babying a child until adulthood will never bring him into the state of life that every human being deserves to be brought into...

I love my son, and I desire for him to be without caps or limitations. I was told that I although I may have goals and learning outcomes, I need to remember his age. What is age more than a number?

I want to teach my son to memorize speeches, to recite passages, to give monologues and recite memorable quotes, and to have an always growing vocabulary.

Josiah's Baby Blessing

By the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood which we hold, we are here to give this baby a name and a blessing. The name which he shall be known by in the records of the church and throughout the whole world is...

Josiah Reyes Mora

Josiah, we bless you that you might live your life in a healthy way, and come to cherish your life, body, and these gifts that are given to you. And we bless you that you may be the man that God and Christ would have you to be.

We bless you that you may give value to your education, to hard work, and to serving the church and your fellow men. We bless you that you may be a strong priesthood holder and leader, and to magnify all your callings.

We bless you that you might be a great missionary, that you may speak with the tongue of angels. As you testify to your fellow brothers and sisters here on the earth, we bless you to be sensitive to the spirit.

We bless you with these things that you might reflect Christ's countenance in your own face, that you might lead others towards the gospel. And we give this name and this blessing to you, Josiah Reyes Mora, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Eating, Typing, and Super Dad Powers

Man, I'm thirsty...
   It's 4:34am on a Monday. I work night watch for the local police jurisdiction, police communication and dispatch. I work again tonight. I've become so accustomed to the 1830-0630hrs schedule, that I have found myself awake during the night hours even on my 3.5 days off every week.
   My wife and son are sleeping behind me, as I have slept during the day, I stay awake in front of our laptop, typing away, trying to update readers on the workings of my mind and heart. Around 2am, my son wasn't sleeping, but had just had his fill of milk. My wife has not slept much and wanted me to watch him for a time... So I took him downstairs with me to hold him while I ate my regularly scheduled lunch.
   I held him with one arm as I set up my plate of some left overs from earlier. Kare kare, which is a filipino dish which features main ingredients of beef, peanut butter, onions and buk choy. Flavor balanced with what I like to call the remains of tortured baby shrimp - bagoong, which is exactly what my title sounds like - shrimp paste. This dish of course was served on top of some white rice.
   It's amazing what a dad can do when he has to live his life even while holding and entertaining a new born. I set up and reheated my plate ate my meal and cleared my area all while holding my 8lbs 6oz baby boy in my left arm, supporting his head with my left hand, and rocking him any time he felt antsy.
   As I started my wife's laptop, I realize I've never used it before, so I had no idea what her password was. I grabbed a dark chocolate caramel pretzel from a costco bag next to the laptop, and after I received the log in information, I began creating this blog. Just without any water for a time, I've become a little parched, Luckily I refilled my canteen with ice cubes and some fresh water while I was downstairs.

I imagine...

I've been searching for creative outlets lately, and wanting to maximize the effectiveness of my mind and talents...
Isn't a blog a good way to get started?

What to write about and when to write...
I imagine a live streaming blog, that goes through my inner thoughts, deeper than what I can accomplish on a social media post, on a facebook timeline, or a youtube channel, or a stream of instagram images...

I imagine all of my inside jokes becoming outside jokes that can make any reader follow along with...

I imagine the concepts and designs that pass through my mind can inspire other artists, scientists, musicians, writers and other creators to take a step back, understand a deeper meaning in life, and to create just a little bit more.

I imagine the funnies, skits, and dramas that stream through my consciousness can have a lasting affect on readers for generations...

I imagine ideas for books that book lovers can hold and display in their book collection on their bookshelf, books based on these rich thoughts that have real true meaning... or words that at least attempt to be fully sincere. Deep from the heart, mind and soul.

I imagine embracing others with my life, through the written word! To invite others to sing and dance and laugh towards the sky! To cry and laugh all together, united through one author's words. One man's words... Words, which are shapes and symbols representing sounds... sounds that create memories and life and song and entertainment and meaning... and beauty. For this I start this blog.