So, are you going to be kind of scarce for awhile?
Yes. At the moment, I live in Ellensburg, on a couch, in a friend's apartment. It is not the worst couch ever, though it is not going to win any attention from Better Homes & Gardens. OK, so it is pretty bad for sitting, but it is all right for sleeping, which is what I am doing on it, because I am technically homeless, because: Driving from where I am at while writing this (my ancestral childhood family home) is neither desirable or feasible, assuming I want to have money to spend on anything other than gasoline. Also, I am lazy, way way lazy, and sort of did not want to live on campus again anyway, so it was easy to not sign up for a dorm.
Anyway, a side effect of this is that my internet access is now primarily at the mercy of others, and while largely benevolent, they have their own needs.
On the crazy off chance anyone wanted to get in contact with you, how could they go about doing so?
Well, they can't, really, not directly. I have no e-mail of my own. Messages sent to my Official Address as linked to on the Flare main page will get to me, eventually, but do not expect a quick reply. All my personal networks not powered by food or gasoline are going to be very dim for the near future.
In a way it is oddly liberating. I have no phone, no address, physical or otherwise, or indeed any other contact information that currently can connect someone to me directly. I have not brought my computer. (Before anyone begins to think I am now living a life of monklike quiet, it should be known that, four feet from my fold-out couch home is a Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, DVD player, and even a Super Nintendo, all connected to a television larger than any I've ever had exclusive access to. This can be somewhat detrimental to prompt appointment keeping, incidently.
How long can this go on?
I don't know. My plan is to get a hefty check from the federal government, eager as it is to further the goals of sad-eyed philosophy students such as myself, and soon, after which point I will go out and rent a place all my own, hopefully one that comes with basic amenities like hot water, electricity, and broadband. Why this city, and every other one on the planet, is not flooded with free wi-fi connected to heroically large data pipes is beyond me. This is surely a public good of the first order.
It would help if I had another job, too.
Did you go see Neal Stephenson at his book reading in Seattle?
And how! He seems friendly and smart and relaxed, and he signed my copy of Quicksilver. Plus I bought several other books with money probably better spent on textbooks, alas. I also had some odd personal reactions to wandering around the University of Washington campus and surrounding areas. Cities are scary and disorienting places. How does anyone live in them?
That's about it. I'm supposed to be learning how to program this quarter, with Java as my guide. And now it seems I've said everything here and have nothing left for my weblog. I am spread too thin these days.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
*sigh* Having to say this is becoming all too common around here:
...the fuck?
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I am not sure how I can explain things to you more clearly, short of slicing off the tops of both our skulls and directly ladling my brain into yours. Flow charts? Powerpoint?
Registered: Mar 1999
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-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I am concerned that this may mean I will have too much time left to my own devices, which will invariably result in my messing things up with The Girl in History.
The result of a daring bout of recon, I now know her name.
But, Simon is on the way up.
Registered: Oct 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Watch out, civilization!
So, Simon, being the unperson that you currently are, how do you intend to leave your grand mark on society? I am curious, you see, as my own situation somewhat mirrors yours (except for the homeless part), and would like to be in the Loop of Things.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Step 1: Live the college student high life while a) finishing my philosophy degree and b) starting a computer science degree.
Step 2: Publish.
Step 3: Bask in fame and wealth.
Like, say, I've got this interest in going Way Up North, so perhaps Trendy Magazine might want to give me a laptop and a satellite modem and pay me to visit various beautiful arctic lands.
Though probably in the immediate post-college future I'll look for a job sort of like the one I have now, only better, which is to say, some sort of copyediting. Or I will discover that I really do have a knack for science, and I will have to balance my arctic adventures with attending Nobel ceremonies.
There's still a program at MIT that I'd like to enroll in, but, I don't know. MIT! It is not the easiest place to go. I guess I should probably start thinking about applying for next year.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Then this will be good practice for when you really are homeless.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Perfidious Simon, I am sort of saddened that there is no mention of any step 1.5 or step 2.5, involving, in perhaps no particular order: Canadian Next Best Thing, Terrifica.
Step 3 would be like, given.
Also, computer science is like, they don't need any more of them, I am sure.
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
So you have no phone, e-mail or residence? *Cut to scene of Sol System hitching down the road while the piano music from The Incredible Hulk plays sorrowfully in the bakjground.* Beware of reporters named "McGee".
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
quote:Originally posted by First of Two: You're a philosophy student?
Then this will be good practice for when you really are homeless.
I guess I will sum it up like this (as mentioned in a comic in U-of-T's Philosophy Department): "Final Exam: What will you do with a degree in Philosophy?"
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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