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Saturday, July 20, 2002

Kest! Kest! Kest!!

I cackle the mad cackle of triumph, and wander off, humming "Another one bites the dust..."

Posted @ 07:10 PM CST [Link]No Comments

In updating the links list, I added a couple of sites that represent interesting new directions that blogs/LJs could take in fandom. The Due South Reporter is probably already known to dS fans, but I think it's a model that people in other fandoms might want to check out. It serves as a clearinghouse for announcements of new stories, fiction snippets in people's blogs/LJs, and other news items, posted by a (deliberately) anonymous group of fans who represent various points on the fannish continuum within due South, belong to different lists, cover different "beats," with the stated goal of neutral and complete reportage. It also provides comment space, open to all, for discussion of stories, news items, etc. that have been reported.

Of course, in an ideal world, this sort of news-and-discussion would be taking place on a lively centralized mailing list. However, not only does the bellicose history of dS fandom make the very existence of such a list vanishingly unlikely; I suspect that large centralized fandom-wide mailing lists are themselves an endangered species. Balkanization, and the growth of myriad small specialized (and often private) lists seems to be the evolutionary trend.

Given that, I think the idea of using a "journal" as a sort of newspaper-of-record for a fandom, complete with letters-to-the-editor option, is an intriguing alternative way to centralize fan discussions. It remains to be seen whether, and how, people will actually use the discussion space, whether any kind of moderator role will be taken on by the people who run the site, and what will happen if/when a slagfest breaks out in the comments. I'll be watching with interest.

The other site, Metablog, also runs on Livejournal, but unlike DS Reporter, it's set up as a community, which means anyone with an LJ account can join and post entries (in addition to comments). So far the "Community Info" page lacks an explicit statement of the site's purpose, but my understanding is that it grew out of a list discussion about the difficulty many people have tracking meta-conversations as they ricochet around the large and diffuse network of fannish blogs/LJs. Interestingly, whereas DS Reporter is replicating many of the functions of a mailing list, Metablog is really much more like the traditional concept of a "weblog" -- not a personal journal, not a discussion board, but rather a collection of cool links, a shortcut to interesting threads within the huge loosely-woven mesh of fannish blogs/LJs.

It'll be very interesting to follow the growth of this site, and to map it against the trajectory of a similar but much larger and more generic weblog, MetaFilter, where over time the focus has shifted from posting of cool links to topical discussion and debate amongst a fractious community, many of whom also maintain their own private blogs.

Posted @ 10:11 AM CST [Link]5 comments

Friday, July 19, 2002

Temporary dullish redesign -- I was getting tired of the old look, and had an odd desire for some <gasp> color. Cool aqueous colors, for a hot sticky summer.

Living the solitary and quiet life, pushing slowly ahead on the story, going to the gym, flopping in front of the fan and reading. More later-- I'm really just sticking this in here to make sure the template changes load correctly.

Posted @ 03:45 PM CST [Link]4 comments

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

The good news is that this is my last day at work until August 25; I have 40 days entirely free and clear, starting the moment I step out of the building at 4:30 p.m. [Cue celebratory cannon-fire, popping champagne corks, etc.]

The bad news is that while I'm off appointment my office is going to be moved; hence, I have to completely pack up everything before I leave today. Hence I am sitting in the midst of chaos unimaginable. It's amazing how much crap I am capable of accumulating in a mere two years.

Among the things I have to box up, take home, throw out, or somehow deal with:

a miniature hand-cranked music box that plays Happy Birthday;
a can of Healthy Choice Baked Potato-style soup;
fourteen empty Altoids tins (which are probably useful for something! Right?);
two anti-stress rubber squeeze balls, one with the college logo, one imprinted in the likeness of a globe;
a sheet of publicity photos left by one of my advisees, who models part-time;
a photo of myself getting an award at a national conference, in which I look slightly drunk;
some ancient, and I mean ancient, rye crackers;
a purple-haired happy-troll keychain;
a couple of ossified marzipan pumpkins left over from Halloween;
a bunch of 33 cent postage stamps;
the warranty card for a cheap Timex that died a year ago;
the grade book from a course I taught in fall 99 (so that's where that went)
a puffin beanie baby that my ex-boss gave me as a joke;
the business card of someone from Prentice Hall who wanted me to call her about writing a study-skills text for them (cue hilarious laughter);
three mix CDs that the lovely and talented Carol S made for me, along with several Coltrane / Monk / Getz CDs;
the mounting bracket to attach Kryptonite bike lock to my bike;
an enormous old boombox (roughly the size of a half-grown alligator) that I scavenged from the discard pile under the stairs a while back, only to find that it didn't actually work, which is why it was in discard in the first place;
the referral form for Extremely Distasteful Medical Procedure that I never actually went ahead and scheduled;
a small bust of Nefertiti that an Egyptian student gave me;
the "Oh, as usual, dear," Giles magnet that lives on my file cabinet;
an assortment of postcards also stuck to my file cabinet, including photos of: Tina Turner and Keith Richards with a bottle of Jack Daniels; James Baldwin; Colette; Jim Morrison's grave; the Dalai Lama; Bucky Haight from HCL (sent by a wonderful friend); King Kong; W. H. Auden; Miles Davis; and Bette Davis holding a pillow embroidered with the legend "Old Age Ain't for Sissies."

Most of my packing so far has consisted of removing these (and so many, many other items) from their original location, setting them down on either desktop or floor, and staring at them helplessly. God, I hate cleaning.

I did have fun, though, throwing out all the stuff from the course that I used to teach and (please god) will never teach again. Hah! Out you go, overheads! Tootles, insanely boring handouts! Buh-bye, quizzes!!

Five hours and counting until I'm sprung . . .

Posted @ 11:58 AM CST [Link]3 comments

Monday, July 15, 2002

Strange weekend. Saturday was wonderful--I spent the morning with debchan and her horses, doing horsey things and talking, and as always I had a great time and found myself wondering why I so seldom allow myself this pleasure of spending time with people I truly enjoy. Then Sunday a big mood crash hit out of nowhere, and I finally got myself out of the house and spent some time blindly wandering around Uptown, taking deep breaths and biting my lips, going into stores and staring blankly at merchandise. I ended up in a used bookstore and bought a copy of volume 4 of Thomas Merton's journals (I've been reading Merton lately as background for a story I'm cogitating). And I managed not to freak out completely and eventually got home and watched Nero Wolfe and tornado shows for a while and fell into bed.

This morning, while drinking coffee, I opened up the Merton book at random (I love journals and collected letters, books one can dip into randomly at intervals) and found this:

"Though I am nearly 48, and it is doubtless time to feel a change of climate in my physical being, which begins to dispose itself for its end some one of these years, it is useless to interpret every little sign or suggestion of change as something of great significance. This is a temptation I yield to. I am still too young mentally to be in the least patient with any sign of age. My impatience is felt as an upheaval of resentment, disgust, depression. And yet I am joyful. I like life, I am happy with it, I really have nothing to complain of. But a little of the chill, a little of the darkness, the sense of void in the midst of myself, and I say to my body: "OK, all right then, die , you idiot!" But it is not really trying to die, it just wants to slow down."

Wham. Yes.

From time to time these days I feel in myself a readiness for death -- not a desire for it, nothing suicidal, but just a deep fatigue with the endless wearying flurry of stuff happening, tasks and meals and fashions and news and people and opinions and words words words. I feel ready sometimes to loosen my grip and just let it all slide away from me. It's the mental/spiritual analogue, perhaps, to the physical slowing Merton speaks of. But I think what it means is that there are some things I can begin letting go of, or stop paying attention to, some demands that I can stop making of myself. And then to refocus on the things I do need to keep a grip on, stay connected to--the things that keep me alive. And not to get so effin' overreactive about it. I don't have to die to let myself slow down, or to let go of the things I don't really need.

Posted @ 08:06 AM CST [Link]2 comments