As I stand here peeling 2 dozen hardboiled eggs one by one over the sink, I have been just thinking about all the amazing people I know and how much I like them. All the things they do that I'll never do because there is not time, but I get to know about them.
Just this morning the Acrobat was going on extendedly about the genius of this Atari game called M.U.L.E. which is multiplayer and from 1983 and a sort of economic planetary colonization game. I watched him play and explain it for a while and it was quite fascinating and good and I was in awe of its coolness and his enthusiasm and analysis of why it was good and cool and genius-like and the history of its programmer, Dan/Danielle Bunton, who died young in some tragic way.
And I love it that yesterday I got to be around and talk with even more new amazing interesting people. People you can get into instant Real Conversation with. I feel really lucky that I know everyone I know and that this is true. It is deeply satisfying. There are other people I admire or like on some level who don't instantly catapult into giant conversations. But I love this quality in people.
And somehow related: the way I love surfing blogs semi-randomly and finding new ones and suddenly engaging in some conversation with strangers. They become less and less strangers. I can write a lengthy blog-comment on some issue and then look and think "Oh, there's Gudy, and there's leblanc, and there's Joshua Norton." And I then find myself in Real Life referring to them and the things they've said and the conversations we've had. It is a public thinking-community at this point and is evolving into something beyond tiny cliques who all comment on each other. I am interested in what Joshua Norton or Ms. D has to say on some subject the way that I like to read columnists in The Nation or the newspaper and in fact, more so.
This feeling of love and appreciation for everyone I know is really strong in me today and all ties together somehow in some kind of inexpressible epiphany that has to do with how much I am also enjoying being a cooking goddess in some small way, making lovely devilled eggs that everyone will devour.
At this moment I am missing Steph who would so get into making some kind of giant nurturing Trip out of cooking with me. Some people make it so that food is love and in a good way.
concern over a phd is not about respecting authority, young lady. instead its about gaining access to the power that allows you to do what you want, where you want to do it. as long as yhou can do what you want without a degree, don't waste your time getting one. writing is a great example--it makes no sense to get a degree in creative writing because there's no bureaucratic obstacles to sitting down and writing something creative. teaching on the other hand probably requires a degree of some sort.
as for donating your brain to science--you can fuck your brains out all you want and still have some left over for the grand finale. so, that's not a concern.
*other* things are a concern.
Posted by: michmasha | August 15, 2004 at 07:54 PM
I totally respect your access to power, little missy! I mean, DR. little missy... 8-)
I can write without a degree, but can I not be parasitical on Rook and write? I mean, I wrote all along no matter what was happening, but now that I am not working full time, and am healthy, and not poor, I can't stress it enough, it's like a bomb going off, I am amazingly productive and have burst through some kind of wall of writerliness and confidence so that I finally know what I am doing and know it's good and that it can get better. I can work full time again and be okay, but... and i shouldn't say this... every full time job i've ever had has been the kind where you slack off a lot and write in the odd moments. Libraries, secretarying, techy jobs where I'm the only techy person and so no one knows that it takes 5 minutes to write some hack of a perl prgram to massage some data and then I spend 2 weeks fucking off writing poetry, diaries, and mud areas. I can exist fine in that sort of job but won't kick any ass in anything I do, nor, unless the golden days come again, will I make any money not kicking it.
anyway. I shoudl shut up now and go apply for some grants.
Posted by: badgerbag | August 16, 2004 at 12:14 AM
But also! In the middle of the night I was thinking, there's also the factor of being around other people who are engaged in the same projects, being connected to people who could publish those projects, teaching people, etc. Being in the atmosphere that you like, in other words. Starting a journal under the auspices of State U.
Posted by: Jo | August 16, 2004 at 08:13 AM
i respect the opinions of a lot of bloggers more than i respect those of columnists and op-eds and certainly the average media pundit. bloggers generally feel no responsibility for diluting their opinions, and put it all out on the table. even if their wrong. it is a wonderful community.
it's funny, though, when i go out into the Real World and get into a conversation with someone about something which i've already had a Comment Conversation on, and i find the need to reference those bloggers who affected my way of thinking. it's hard to explain to a non-blogger where some of your ideas are coming from , because "i was chatting with this guy i know online" doesn't carry a lot of weight in that setting. anywho .... yeah.
Posted by: leblanc | August 16, 2004 at 11:24 AM
Yeah -- well -- I have begun just referring to other bloggers or commenters by name or saying "XYZ, who is a Writer I know, and I, were talking and blah blah blah."
Posted by: badgerbag | August 16, 2004 at 11:59 AM