It's hard for me to talk about what sort of dream job that I can envision myself undertaking for the rest of my life. This fact has contributed to the delay in writing this. Let's be serious for a moment here though, there are dream jobs and then there are dream jobs. The latter deals specifically with what job would be mind boggingly awesome to have; the former is similar to the latter in that same aspect but entail something altogether different in that they mingle with reality and what may be possible.

First, a detour, where I work currently; fast food. A local place, mexican food; it, as one might suspect, is not that great of a job. Customers complain about trivial things while not having the decency to not get angry about it, the management seems divided as to how best make us occupy our time while never telling us directly what they expect of us or what we might be doing wrong, and the employees serve as a cross section of interesting people, funny people, snarky college people, aged and past their prime people, young and still eveloped by high school politics people, real people, rough around the edges people, the kind you hate but would give your life for. Maybe hate is a strong word... Regardless, despite the negative feelings I have for the place, it has a soft spot in my heart. I've worked there for more than three years and that would not have occured if I did not enjoy it on some level. It's an easy place to work despite the drama, and laid back to the point where you don't have to bust your ass to keep your job. The pay level has always been decent too, for the industry, though minimum wage is beginning to catch up. And you get to smell like a taco! Who doesn't love tacos? This job is temporary at best. I can not imagine being employed there until I die. I'm sure not many would. Thinking about it I'm amazed that I've worked there as long as I have. At this point I'm starting to long for something more. Something more fitting to my specialized knowledges.

The unrealistic dream jobs for myself, I think, are fairly common amongst most people. Who wouldn't want to be a professional athlete? To get payed to play a game? Who wouldn't want to be James Bond? (For that matter I wonder how much money Bond actually gets payed! I mean, dude's been going on non-stop world saving missions for the past thirty years or so, sleeps with the most beautiful women, has an awesome accent, rarely gets injures and always saves the day - hell, I'll bet you they don't pay him at all, or they give him peanuts. Lots and lots of peanuts.) There are other jobs too that I think would be rewarding but I am personally incapable of doing. It'd be pretty sweet to be able to calculate new digits in Pi, for instance, or to win a nobel prize for contributions to the field of genetic research. Cellular biology and other science-y things, I'm a dork, I know, but I've always found them interesting. Unfortunately I've never seen myself as a mathematic wonder-kid, so those are out of the window. Being a famous musician too, or even a localized one with a small though dedicated following. I'm sure a lot of us take the time to imagine these kinds of things on varying degrees of importance.

So, what are the real 'dream' jobs that I'm aiming to achieve? I wish it were that simple. I am at a point in my life that I can see myself doing many things. Being a professor in philosophy someday, might be achieveable; or working as an advisor on some political campaign. Maybe starting or assisting a grass roots organization dedicated to combating poverty or other social issues. I can also see myself going into the field of law, hoping to protect civil rights or at the very least, be a lawyer that hasn't sold his soul to the here-under (corporate money). My real dream though is to become a published novelist. I have a few works of fiction lying around that I can tweak and work upon, but nothing too serious. I imagine it a lot though, the hours sitting and typing, thinking, creating imaginary worlds for myself. They say dream jobs are dream job because when you go to work at them, you do not feel like you are working at all. That's what imagining being a writer is like to me. It hardly seems like it'd be work at all. It'd be fun to do some freelance work as well, maybe in the video game industry, or maybe in philosophy, or opinion sections. Whatever my dream job ends up being though, I can't imagine it not being linked to writing in some way.

As always, I want to thank everyone for your responses. :-) There's a nice bit of variation there too, from gardening, to a fighter pilot, to computation awesomeness - dreams are as varied as the person that holds on to them. In most cases, I can only hope that we continue to hold onto them, continue to pursue them, and never ever let them go, no matter how tempting it may be.

Elsewhere, I decided to buy a PS3. MGS4 was awesome, very awesome, and I'll try to write something on it soon. I am quite happy with my oh so expensive decision. :-) Until next time friends, happy gaming!