Taking a Break

I'm going to take a break from this blog for a while. There's a lot of pictures I could put up, but I'm preoccupied with some stuff that doesn't jibe with the tone of this blog. I've also been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with this format. Perhaps its situational and will pass.

The questions of anonymity, disclosure, boundaries and the nascent conventions of blogging culture, all have me a little confused as to whether I want to be a blogging presence at all right now. My professional identity is in question (ie, I don't have a stable job in my field). That being the case, is a pseudo-anonymous blog a liability in the job search? Such are my thoughts.

One last Auden quote, from The Dyer's Hand:

When I consider others I can easily believe that their bodies express their personalities and that the two are inseparable. But it is impossible for me not to feel that my body is other than I, that I inhabit it like a house, and that my face is a mask which, with or without my consent, conceals my real nature from others.

The (Conning?) Tower in the Sky

On a cloudy day you can see the missing floors (on 15 and 30). The mystery deepens.

Two days a week I visit this place of wonder and beaurocracy. Behold! the tools of the information age:

Egad! I've been tagged.

I don't really like this sort of thing -- It reminds me of (though I have to admit it's in a different category than) those emails that command you to Send this touchy-feely email to 10 people or something horrible will happen to you, because you're clearly just a horrible person if you don't join in. In any case, I'll play along - here goes...

INSTRUCTIONS:

Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

1. Electronic Cerebrectomy

2. Byzantium's Shores

3. Tosy and Cosh

4. Ramblin' with Roger

5. Blog To Self

Next, select five people to tag.

Le Monde de Hulk & Baby is the only blog I'm willing to tag, but that should count for two...

What were you doing ten years ago?

Living in Chicago. Working at the UofC Science Lib (Crerar) in Tech Services doing serials binding stuff. Playing old-timey jazz with a singer in a group we called "the Ben and Pepper Show." Otherwise up to no good.

What were you doing one year ago?

In the process of finishing school. Doing an internship at NYS SBDC, where I worked with someone who has become a good friend and even contributed to their blog.

Five snacks you enjoy.
I don't want to answer this one. It gets into the guilty pleasure zone. But here goes, in no particular order: 1. Nuts. 2. Peanut butter -- on toast with butter and lots of cherry preserves, for example 3. Peanut butter-based candy bars or like Reese's 4. Dole's fruit and juice bars -- esp. Lime 5. Spicy Doritos with crab dip.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics.

I've been playing the ukulele and learned these songs on it (I'm sure I know the lyrics, even if I can't always remember them all): She's My Best Friend (the Velvet Underground), I Will Follow (Death Cab for Cutie), All of Me (jazz standard), Everyone Says I Love You (from the Marx Brother's movie Horse Feathers)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire.

1. Pay off my student loans and other debts. 2. Hire an investor. 3. Become a monk for a year or two. 4. Buy a house to collect things in, like instruments and electronic gear, including a DV (Digital Video) camera. 5. Go back to work sooner or later -- probably sooner than I'd like.

Five bad habits.

1. Coffee 2. I'm not telling. 3. Fast driving. 4. A pack rat approach to desk organization - ie, making piles rather than filing or tossing. 5. Collecting books - ie, acquiring books I don't intend to read, but want to have "just in case."

Five things you like doing.

1. Playing music. 2. Drinking coffee alone in a coffee shop with a pile of reading material. 3. Going to the movies. 4. Seeing films (not the same as #3). 5. Not having anything to do, to do something. (Also a bad habit?)

Five things you would never wear again.

There must be something I could answer this question with, but it leaves my mind blank. I suppose it's a set up to say bell bottoms or leg warmers or something. Here's an imaginary response: a teal green seersucker suit, a blonde Harpo wig, ochre suede wing-tips, mud-brown suspenders and brick-red tortoiseshell glasses.

Coleridge

I may not hope from outward forms to win
The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.