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| Friday, June 27, 2003 |
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Loose Weekendings 
| | € Frank Paynter interviews Steve MacLaughlin. The permalink doesn't work, so just scroll down to Wednesday, June 25. Some extracts: |
| | The reason I choose not to get wrapped up in the frothing confab of bloggerdom is because I honestly do not believe there is that much to say about blog culture. I believe that there has been less debate over Rousseau's "The Social Contract" or "Waiting For Godot" by Samuel Beckett than there has been over what blogging is or what it means in some larger social context. History always repeats itself and blogging is the latest iteration of personal journals, which is not a new concept to say the least. Go back and read some Samuel Pepys or James Boswell and you will quickly get a much less haughty golly-gee-whiz attitude about blogging's originality or special powers... |
| | I think the whole debate of bloggers as Journalists has long since exhausted any new meaningful thoughts. At the end of the day we are all just adjunct journalists. We have other jobs that in theory qualify us to comment on particular subjects, but our blogging does not pay the bills. We may occasionally break a story or force a correction in print or topple a politician, but we are always going to be amateurs in the eyes of the professional Journalists. This is a lesson that I have gleaned from another profession. Unless I am mistaken the only bloggers making a living from their blogging are those that were Journalists to begin with. When someone crosses over from the minor leagues then I will be pleasantly surprised. |
| | Bloggers are the barbarians at the gates of the Journalism world, and there is some real apprehension about our presence, but they figure they can wait out any siege. Their hope is that we get bored and find someone else to pester. Journalists do not fear bloggers, but they do have some concerns about how blogging will change their profession... |
| | Whoever coined the term "ivory tower" hit the bull's-eye dead center. The whole process of getting hired in higher education defies any logic, and once you get into the club you are not going to let someone upset the apple cart. Then to reward you for towing the line they give you this amazing thing called "tenure" that makes you bulletproof from getting canned no matter what you do, or better yet, don't do. Who wouldn't love that kind of job security... err... academic freedom? |
| | What they don't tell you is that higher ed has over produced union card holders to the degree that there are five or six applicants for every one full-time position. That makes it an employers market where the inmates run the asylum. I have actually written an as yet unpublished article about my own adventures in trying to get hired in higher ed. My lawyer says I might want to consider keeping it that way. |
Oo Noo
| | The Google Toolbar doesn't work on Linux or OS X. It only works on Internet Explorer on Windows. Bummer. |
Found: Civilization
| | So I'm sitting in Muddy Waters, which is Santa Barbara's Alt.Coffee, without the dead computer reliquery or the Web site, but with pretty much everything else. Expecially the free wi-fi. |
TGIJ
| | It's the 27th. What happened to June? Time flies when it's running out. |
| | That's my thought for the day, as it runs out all over the world (it's already gone in the Far East). In one month and three days, I'll finish 56 years on the planet. Which equally feels like a whole lot and not nearly enough. |
| | I saw Tommy Franks described in the paper yestereday as looking "every bit" his age, which is the same as mine. And I thought he looked pretty damn good. |
| | But not as good as Dubya, who's got his 57th coming up in a few days. The bastard. |
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