So I always thought those internet maps were a neat use of technology, but the maps themselves were crap. All that junk and you could hardly see where you were supposed to go. Turns out the people who have degrees in this sort of stuff agreed with me. There's a new mapping system out there now called LineDrive that actually makes maps PEOPLE can read. Have a look for yourself at Mapblast.com. Be sure to select the LineDrive option and not the Standard Map option - then look at the standard one and compare. What a great advance!!

I suppose this thrills me doubly, 'cause I like maps: a symbolic construction of information... Maps *create* topography, not the other way around. This is using technology to create an interesting sort of topography. It's mapping the *journey* from point A to point B, not the *route* that gets you there. Just like someone scribbling on a napkin and saying "turn left at the Motel 6...".

Turns out there's even a scholarly paper on the subject.

Hmmm...

$80!! That's how much my phone bill is this month, $80. Christ, where am I going to get that kind of money? It was a few days using the University dial-up before my DSL turned on ("long distance", apparently, since it's on the other side of town) and a few calls to my parents. And it's EIGHTY-frickin-DOLLARS!! Pardon me, I must go quietly panic.

I bet you always wanted to know how to count in binary. On your fingers.

No respite from the rain until Monday, they say. Hope no one was planning on a sunny weekend in the park.

OK, that settles it. People are ridiculous.

So true. I found this here.

A friend of mine graduated college a year before me and is now doing his PhD at Berkeley. I once asked him about academia as a Choice and he suggested, wisely, not to think about it as an all or nothing thing. He also said that he felt the questions all boil down to whether or not you want to write scholarly books -- the notion of which is highly unattractive to me right now. In these rare moments of clarity, I suspect that my lingering thoughts of staying in academia are just that -- the desire itself to stay in a university and feel a part of that club. That's really how it sometimes feels. Getting a job at my university after graduating was just a convenience. And it's like being in a clubhouse where I still look like a member but am not. Do I need that sort of external, institutional validation to feel "intellectual"? At times, I feel as though I've already answered my own questions regarding grad school, since my impulse towards academia is largely motivated by thoughts of what I profoundly don't want (a 9 to 5 job that leaves me feeling tired and empty) rather than real ideas of how to actualize what I do want -- something intellectually and emotionally rewarding that pays enough to live comfortably on. Geez, is that too much to ask?

I am ashamed to admit that I got rather more than half of these. And even more ashamed that I want to hear the rest...

I remember back to my first few years at IWU, where doing philosophy was the most exciting thing I could think of. Every class made me think about things I'd never thought of before, and the people I met were such a great community - totally unlike your average frat boys and business majors. Now, it's becoming a real effort to read papers and analyze arguments - then say something intelligent about them "for the sake of philosophy" and not because the topic really interests me. And the community that used to be such a haven now seems awfully small. I see all the people on the streets outside, going about their business, and I feel isolated from them all by what I do. The things I'm trained to think about are totally irrelevant to the woman sitting on the bus next to me, or the guy I pass on the way to the store. Not only the suits, but my peers as well. The ones with the pink hair and the piercings, or the ones in the park reading novels. My goals are supposed to be to publish papers in journals that only other philosophers read, and to pick apart arguments for nothing more than the mental satisfaction of having done it. These are not goals that are going to change the world. They're not going to make anyone's lives easier, or get a job done, or make somebody smile. I feel trapped in this ivory tower - and what's worse, I feel like I don't have any choice in the matter. Like the fact that I *can do* these things, and that someone is even giving me money to do them, has taken away my freedom to choose my own path. It's an unpleasant feeling, to be sure. I've been asking myself *why* I'm here, doing what I'm doing - and I can't find an answer, other than "it seemed like the easiest thing to do." And I'm not OK with that. Not at all.

My DSL went out for a while this morning. It was only for a few hours, but I felt lost without it. *sigh* Everything's OK now - I can blog.

I've started looking at computer science/web design MA programs tonight. I've gotta get out of this philosophy gig and into something USEFUL. I don't imagine my chances are very good, considering I have a BA in philosophy, but I'm going to give it a shot, anyway.

So the phone rang earlier, and when I picked it up it was a recording. Some guy with a ridiculous news anchor voice said that he was doing a survey for a morning news program. Then a woman's voice asked me if I had any school-age children. I pressed 2 for 'NO', and the guy's voice said "Thank you, goodbye." Wierd.