Angles of Refraction
Sep. 6th, 2008 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aseI am too old to waste a Saturday surfing 40 or 50 years of Marvel comics history, but that's exactly what I did today. Escapism much?
For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, if you're fantasy-casting Marvel comics adaptations, who does Ewan McGregor play? I have just enough shame and attention to detail that I'm not going to insta-cast him for Captain America (why yes, this is an obvious ploy involving Robert Downey Jr), but I am giving it way too much thought. I mean, there's umpty-thousand other Avengers, hangers-on, X-Men & etc to choose from. Other than Nick Fury, who is - forgive me - motherf*cking cast; and besides,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
norabomay pointed out that Aaron Eckhart actually looks the part.
I liked last weekend's three-day break from the lab so much that I put in for vacation time and am doing it again this weekend. So far I've been to a WSFA meeting, baked chocolate chip cookies, and admired TS Hannah's rain and wind, and declared it Navel-Gazing Emo Weekend Of Goal-Setting. I've done almost nothing but stick money into my (in case of emergency, break glass) savings account this year, and it's made me absolutely miserable. I've done one five-day trip since I started my "new" job in February. I had a frivolous night on the town in August. It's time for the quarterly reassessment: what do I want to do, professionally and personally?
Professional is fairly straightforward: I have a field I like (bio), I have some tools to work with (degree, lab experience), there's some logical tracks from here (PhD, PhD + MBA, M.Sci + MBA, med school; work for 10 years, pick up an M. Sci somewhere in there, and be middle management). There's a couple of jokers in the deck - I can always run away and try to do something with a camera! - but they're unlikely to play a big role in employment or income for at least the next five years. I'm an idiot for not trying to fit in an academic class this semester, but it would've been differently dumb to impulsively cram a random evening course in, instead of deferring the option until spring semester.
Personal is less clear. Someone posted on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
wurds: "Civilization can be reduced to the following: 'I need a hug. Go away.' Unable to solve this conundrum, and having nothing better to do in the meantime, we build cathedrals and drink heavily." Life is a series of compromises between the push and pull of human interaction, with a lot of displacement into elaborate distractions, useful or destructive. My parents continue to prove themselves as excellent models of compromise with an imperfect world, but I think there are better compromises to make than those I saw assumed until I went to college. Do I want to get married? Do I want kids? I don't want what I grew up with. So what do I see people doing that admire and want to emulate? Professional tracking is painless compared to the messy business of life off the clock.
For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, if you're fantasy-casting Marvel comics adaptations, who does Ewan McGregor play? I have just enough shame and attention to detail that I'm not going to insta-cast him for Captain America (why yes, this is an obvious ploy involving Robert Downey Jr), but I am giving it way too much thought. I mean, there's umpty-thousand other Avengers, hangers-on, X-Men & etc to choose from. Other than Nick Fury, who is - forgive me - motherf*cking cast; and besides,
norabomay pointed out that Aaron Eckhart actually looks the part.I liked last weekend's three-day break from the lab so much that I put in for vacation time and am doing it again this weekend. So far I've been to a WSFA meeting, baked chocolate chip cookies, and admired TS Hannah's rain and wind, and declared it Navel-Gazing Emo Weekend Of Goal-Setting. I've done almost nothing but stick money into my (in case of emergency, break glass) savings account this year, and it's made me absolutely miserable. I've done one five-day trip since I started my "new" job in February. I had a frivolous night on the town in August. It's time for the quarterly reassessment: what do I want to do, professionally and personally?
Professional is fairly straightforward: I have a field I like (bio), I have some tools to work with (degree, lab experience), there's some logical tracks from here (PhD, PhD + MBA, M.Sci + MBA, med school; work for 10 years, pick up an M. Sci somewhere in there, and be middle management). There's a couple of jokers in the deck - I can always run away and try to do something with a camera! - but they're unlikely to play a big role in employment or income for at least the next five years. I'm an idiot for not trying to fit in an academic class this semester, but it would've been differently dumb to impulsively cram a random evening course in, instead of deferring the option until spring semester.
Personal is less clear. Someone posted on
wurds: "Civilization can be reduced to the following: 'I need a hug. Go away.' Unable to solve this conundrum, and having nothing better to do in the meantime, we build cathedrals and drink heavily." Life is a series of compromises between the push and pull of human interaction, with a lot of displacement into elaborate distractions, useful or destructive. My parents continue to prove themselves as excellent models of compromise with an imperfect world, but I think there are better compromises to make than those I saw assumed until I went to college. Do I want to get married? Do I want kids? I don't want what I grew up with. So what do I see people doing that admire and want to emulate? Professional tracking is painless compared to the messy business of life off the clock. 