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12/9/04 Can't Get There from Here
7/29/04 Political Speechmaking  
7/26/04 Words of Praise
6/22/04 Hygene and its Discontents
6/21/04 Summer Solstice -- Financial Fog
1/16/04 No Free Speech at Any Price
1/11/04 New Year's Notes, Cows and Bikes
11/18/03 Pull the Bull
10/20/03 Gardening Delights
8/26/03 Of Elves, Otters and SUVs
8/17/03 Great News on the Population Front
8/8/03 Energy Distribution in Iraq
5/14/03 Taxing Issues
4/20/03 Keeping Santa Cruz Weird
1/28/03 When the "A-Ha!" Moment Scares the Crap Out of You
11/10/02 Elfin Visions
11/2/02 Invisible Demons
5/15/02 Liquid Fuel from Sunlight, Seawater and Fresh Air

6/21/04

Happy Summer Solstice 2004!

In honor of this momentous occasion, and because I did in fact graduate with my PhD over a month ago, I’ve decided to get serious about blogging.  Well, not too serious – but at least a couple a week (except possibly for a couple weeks in July when I visit my family).  “Why?” you might well ask.  I’ll tell you…

You remember that scene in Good Will Hunting when the Harvard med student/girlfriend says something like, “when I finish Med School, my brain will be worth $50,000.”  Well, I’ve put myself nearly $90,000 in debt for the honor and privilege of strengthening some neuronal connections (and that’s just student loans, not the credit cards upon which I’ve also run-up a tidy sum).  Of course, I’ve invested a lot over the years in alcohol and other substances to disrupt some of those neurons, so it may not all show.  Nonetheless, as our beneficent federal government was kind enough to entrust me with this debt, the least I can do is use those synapses in an attempt to benefit our great, ailing, misguided nation.

Funny thing about money.  It’s a symbol we use to exchange time and effort, but somehow it never represents the same thing twice.  I mean, lots of people put in lots of time and effort to benefit others, and end up broke.  I paid to put in time and effort on a dissertation (which admittedly will benefit less than a dozen people).  Any organizing work I do, and even writing this very blog, will result in no financial compensation.  I’m trained to do research and teach, but I can’t find anyone local (UCSC or Cabrillo College) who will pay me to do that (and I’m not willing to move to Nebraska or Iowa, though I’d have a better chance of getting hired by colleges there).  But I spend a few hours working on somebody’s website, and I make some money to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and bicycle gear.  It’s all pretty mysterious, and more than a little frustrating.

So I’m looking to do something different.  I’ve been working on this notion (on-and-off, while I was supposed to be getting my dissertation done) of convincing people to pay me to do what I love to do, which is to get up in front of them and show off how brilliant I am.  Mostly, I’ve been working on this with my uncle Gary, with the idea of getting gigs as a business consultant through Emergent Systems (I have yet to receive any money for work on that website, but the idea is that it’s all self-promotion and I’ll be richly rewarded sometime in the future).  I don’t know if it’s ever going to fly.  Gary also suggested finding out about speaker’s bureau, to see if I can get some one-night-stand work, get my name out there a bit.  Maybe, maybe.

I’m still recovering from the fog of actually finishing the dissertation.  And I’m still spending my days at home alone, mostly in front of the computer, which depresses me like you wouldn’t believe.  Not that it’s a bad home, not that I rationally have anything to be depressed about… but I am a social primate, like it or not, and I have spent way too much of the last several years at home alone in front of the computer.

So that’s where my overpriced head is right now.  And I’ll share it with whoever bothers to read this, a couple times a week – just on Xanga if it’s mostly personal, on www.rattlebrain.com/~apegrrl if it’s more developed political thought.   So, if you’re interested, check back in a few days, and if there isn’t something new up, drop a line and harass me about it.

‘til next time…

I now have a more interactive space at my Xanga blog. I will work on adding each entry here to that site, and provide a link from each one here to each one there for now. Xanga will include more brief notes and personal ramblings. I still welcome your comments via e-mail (with your permission, I will post them). E-mail me at: apegrrl@ 
rattlebrain.com

or post a comment on my Xanga site

please feel free to spread these memes, but be nice and give credit where credit is due - refer people back here to the apegrrl This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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