Alas' Life-Shift

Alas is a real-life James Bond who transforms his life after the birth of his two nieces.

This one last vignette is a Christmastime life-alteration story inspired by the film City of Joy.

Cheers (signing off),

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Alas, the Algerian-American photojournalist for the Daily Bugle in NYC decided his life should become more spiritual after the birth of his two nieces. Alas spent time babysitting his nieces and applied his training in education and child-care to the tending of his nieces' emotional and mental needs, fostering their development and encouraging them with word-games and instructional toys and instruments. Alas realized he was finally becoming a 'real man.'

Prior to this radical change in Alas' life, he was a secret operative for the NSA (National Security Agency), developing advanced network infiltration algorithms designed for creating surgical espionage programs for American monitoring stations in Syria and Iran. Alas developed key algorithms/programs that would assist the government in determining how new age terrorists were hacking into American computer networks and the Internet to create matrices of terrorist imagery and messaging! This was the double-side of Alas' dangerous and intriguing life, and he'd met a beautiful female government operative working in Iran named Monica who became his girlfriend. Alas was like James Bond!

Suddenly, however, Alas wanted to translate his life of espionage and official political intelligence/tech into the advancement of his family life and time with his two nieces. He borrowed some of the government's specially-designed new age 'tech-toys' to adapt into home entertainment use, such as a handheld Seiko wrist-watch TV and signals-receiver, capable of receiving cable signals from just about anywhere around the world! Alas realized his nieces were thrilled at seeing and interacting with this tech-toy and musing at the program-signals of magician-entertainment from Morocco, Lisbon, and British Columbia.

Alas requested to be retired from the NSA so he could continue to do amateur photojournalism work for the Daily Bugle in NYC and spend his other time managing a Montessori home-schooling program for his nieces and other kids in the community where they lived! Alas used his contacts in Harlem to recruit a group of African-American teachers who worked for the ebs (Education Boost System) and found African-American children who'd be part of his new day-care/school program. Alas had revolutionized his life and wondered what he'd tell his 'James Bond girlfriend' Monica!

Alas purchased some fancy leather-gloves and sent them to his 'James Bond girlfriend' Monica for Christmas 2020 and explained to her that if she still wanted to be part of his 'new life' and mission that she'd have to leave espionage-work and come to America and help him with his Montessori school in Harlem and New York! Monica didn't know what to say at first but appreciated the handsomeness of Alas' leather-gloves Christmas gift. She realized too that Alas was radically changing and wondered how she'd be part of his new life!

Monica decided to send Alas her pencil-ink drawings of mystical Native-American women that'd be useful perhaps for Alas' home-schooling children's program in America. These drawings were ornate and detailed, and Alas discovered that his kids/students really liked Monica's drawings. Alas wrote Monica a letter and told her that he'd be so happy if she ever decided to change her life as well and join him on his new education and child-care program. Monica for the time being however was simply content with contributing to Alas' new life with her imaginative drawings and sketches.

When Alas received a new shipment of nifty home toy handheld mini-pianos, he found that his kids really liked them (including his two darling nieces!) and incorporated these mini-pianos into the kids' educational curriculum. Alas' co-teachers from the Harlem ebs (Education Boost System) equally liked these mini-pianos and coordinated singing programs to complement the use of these nifty new age musical toys! Alas, however, suddenly started missing Monica, his 'James Bond girlfriend.'

Alas decided to take a vacation to the American Southwest. He met a gorgeous half-Native woman in Arizona named Scarlet who told him about the mystical value of transforming one's life. However, she was so darn attractive, and Alas started remembering the adventurous qualities of his old 'James Bond life' and began a very hot courtship with Scarlet and wrote her little stories adapted from his James Bond adventures with the NSA. Scarlet became Alas' life-course alteration counselor, and Alas was officially torn between his old life and his new one!

Finally, Alas decided to opt for a new life of home-schooling and community-developmental day-care for his children/students. He purchased a Transformers (Hasbro) scientist-robot toy called Perceptor, a valiant guardian who transformed mechanically into a potent microscope with scientific magnification slides of various nature samples! Alas' children/students loved Perceptor and inspired Alas to think about what had helped him to convert his life completely from one of political and global intrigue into one of local and community-based imagination!

Monica decided to join Alas' school program and cooked delicious lunches of pasta-and-pesto for the children/students. the co-teachers from the ebs (Education Boost Society) also appreciated Monica's contributions to the home-schooling/day-care program in Harlem and New York! Alas was thrilled Monica had joined him, and he decided to break ties with his mysterious Native counselor-woman from Arizona (Scarlet) who was helping Alas become a 'real man.' Now, Alas cared more about simple life than political acumen (and so did Monica!).

ALAS: "My life is one of Christian values and local education and community involvement now, and Monica has become my life-partner. It's odd that a man of espionage can become a man of American communities! Fortunately, my home-school program has become a source of great inspiration for me, and I intent to celebrate this upcoming Christmas in Hawaii with Monica!"

THE END!

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