I'm not dead, and while a bit mouldy from four months of neglect, the cave is not closed for good. I refuse to walk away from this attempt in the vainglorious pursuit of at least a dozen occasional readers.
So the $.64 dollar question is... what has the philosopher been doing for the last six months? I went off the air largely because I took a short term job that had the small advantage of occasionally allowing me to actually work with Sharon, and the very large disadvantage of keeping me away from her almost all of the time.
Physical exhaustion is not particularly good for the philosophical mind, but that bit is over now and I'm back onto the search for something that at least approximates 'real' employment. It would be simpler if I had a career goal the way most modern people do, a firm desire to be a lawyer, or doctor, or parking garage attendant. The problem is however, that I have this strong desire to simply be married and perhaps raise a family. Everything else is just beans, and so it makes interviews a bit awkward. Interviews typically get to a point-
HR Drone: Mr. Reiser, tell me, *cough* , what makes you want to be a TPS Report Analyst?
And there's not really a good answer for that sort of question, because I don't really want to shovel some disingenuous load of tripe down there throat about how I've always wanted to analyze reports, because it's simply not true. On the other hand, I'm sunk if I look her (no offense ladies, but the interviewers are almost always women for some reason) in the eye and state flatly: "I want the job because I have a wife to feed and rent to pay and nice things I would like." That would be treason, because in modern culture we are all supposed to find our 'economic vocation' and devote our lives and very souls to some variation on 'developing synergy' or 'facilitating communications strategies.'
And it's everywhere... people will come up to you at a party and ask "What do you do?" I'm sometimes tempted to say. "Well, this morning I got up and had a cup of coffee. I'm pretty sure most of the time I was breathing, though there were a few seconds I'm not sure about because Sharon surprised me in the bath. In any event, at the moment I'm talking to a stupid twit who thinks the best way to begin introductions is on business interests."
But I don't. Most of the time I give an evasive answer and find someone I know. At the rare party where creative people might be about I call myself 'an unsuccessful freelance photographer.' It's mostly true, gets us off the subject of work, and sometimes gets the conversation on to a subject that I actually like to discuss.
End of rant, there's more pedestrian news to get to. If anyone has or soon will try to access the pictures at homepage.mac.com/m_reiser, don't be surprised to notice that they are gone. That whole site is being rebuilt as time permits. Also, I give notice that I may disparate from the internet for days at a time. I'll go into details later, but it involves myself, Verizon DSL service, and a technologically ignorant neighbor.
Minutiae out of the way however, the important news is that Sharon and I have moved once again. I'll go into gory details sometime in the next few days, but I am now finally master of my domain once again. It will be nice to be able to entertain guests of our own once again. The new address will eventually appear in the alumni directory for 'the community of those who know', but any interested parties can get it by e-mailing me at matt.reiser@mac.com.
That's it for tonight. This place is dirty and I think I see a spider under that rock... or is it just the form of a spider?
