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Why do I not post to Dreamwidth if I miss Livejournal so much? I mean, it's a good question. I suppose it's mostly because so many of the people I followed on LJ moved elsewhere during the great exodus, and I never quite got into the swing of things around here. Not enough activity to keep the ADHD brain checking back repeatedly, and--
--oh, yeah, I finally got diagnosed with ADHD and got on medication. It's been a fantastic upgrade to my life, and all I need to do now is untangle decades of maladaptive coping behaviors. Should be simple!
Anyway. Uh. Let's see. A quick recap...
I'm working on my dissertation, currently titled "Social Interactions Among Slaves and Sex Workers in Plautus." Not exactly snappy, but it sums up the focus of the project. I've got nearly two chapters written, a ton of notes, and really need to be defending by June, so... wish me luck?
Also going on right now: teaching Latin as usual (new book, I'm not thrilled with it); applying for academic jobs (a constant nightmare); eyeing non-academic job options that might be worth putting into the mix; trying to figure out how to plan housing/etc. for summer and beyond next year when I have no idea where I'll be living/working in autumn of 2023; finishing up the outline for my next Choice of Games project*. So let's just say it's been rather stressful.
But... I'm happy. Yes, the world is constantly on fire (literally or otherwise). Yes, I'm juggling a thousand deadlines. Yes, I'm trying to unlearn a lot of behavior that's been ingrained for decades. Yes, academia is a broken system. But. I'm happy! I have a dog and a spouse and something that might become a career. I like my dissertation topic. I like my writing project(s). My apartment is cozy and functional. The weather in Minnesota is finally turning to the type I like (overcast and chilly). It's a good life, despite the issues, and what more could I really ask for?
I guess I could ask for a tenure-track job in a location I like, but, uh, see the whole thing about the nightmare of academic job locations. But other than that! It's good.
(* In case you missed it, my interactive fiction project with Choice of Games, Social Services of the Doomed, was released this summer. Urban fantasy with bureaucracy! It's fun! Multiple people have assured me of this, and I believe they are telling the truth!)
--oh, yeah, I finally got diagnosed with ADHD and got on medication. It's been a fantastic upgrade to my life, and all I need to do now is untangle decades of maladaptive coping behaviors. Should be simple!
Anyway. Uh. Let's see. A quick recap...
I'm working on my dissertation, currently titled "Social Interactions Among Slaves and Sex Workers in Plautus." Not exactly snappy, but it sums up the focus of the project. I've got nearly two chapters written, a ton of notes, and really need to be defending by June, so... wish me luck?
Also going on right now: teaching Latin as usual (new book, I'm not thrilled with it); applying for academic jobs (a constant nightmare); eyeing non-academic job options that might be worth putting into the mix; trying to figure out how to plan housing/etc. for summer and beyond next year when I have no idea where I'll be living/working in autumn of 2023; finishing up the outline for my next Choice of Games project*. So let's just say it's been rather stressful.
But... I'm happy. Yes, the world is constantly on fire (literally or otherwise). Yes, I'm juggling a thousand deadlines. Yes, I'm trying to unlearn a lot of behavior that's been ingrained for decades. Yes, academia is a broken system. But. I'm happy! I have a dog and a spouse and something that might become a career. I like my dissertation topic. I like my writing project(s). My apartment is cozy and functional. The weather in Minnesota is finally turning to the type I like (overcast and chilly). It's a good life, despite the issues, and what more could I really ask for?
I guess I could ask for a tenure-track job in a location I like, but, uh, see the whole thing about the nightmare of academic job locations. But other than that! It's good.
(* In case you missed it, my interactive fiction project with Choice of Games, Social Services of the Doomed, was released this summer. Urban fantasy with bureaucracy! It's fun! Multiple people have assured me of this, and I believe they are telling the truth!)
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I do see people trying to post here a bit more but there doesn't seem to be the momentum of a community like LJ had, I guess -- there's so many social networks and it's all fractured. Everyone I know seems to be using DISCORD as a default, and no. Just no. I did AIM back in the 00s. "I have been down that road and I know exactly where it goes."
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...presumably, I can't even remember if I signed up or not at some point. I just want a place where I can get casual chronological mostly-text and some-image views of what various friends & acquaintances & rarely strangers are up to. Sigh.
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AUGH
People are also reccing Substack, and besides my bemusement that we're all apparently going back to email lists, I don't want to have to keep track of ten different subscriptions, and that also doesn't feel like a community. I know people can comment at the website, but that's going back to secondary comments on a primary blog. I really miss the LJ/DW feeling of liminality and how we're all part of a big community. (Or it feels big, to me!)
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Where does one find this interactive fiction project?
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ETA: As another ADHD person, if it vanished, I promise I will understand and not be upset, I know how that goes.
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https://www.choiceofgames.com/social-services-of-the-doomed/
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Kate says Hi!
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(and, yes, this platform is a little short on critical mass for posting, sadly, especially when I have a thriving discord community to chat in. Tho this does not keep me from missing essay-format posting or the friends from old social media now abandoned...)
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A lot of people I used to follow on LJ have newsletters now, which I like for the reading-essay-length thing. But even if the newsletter allows for comments, it's so much higher friction to come back and check comments that it still seems to lose most of that community/interaction sense that LJ used to have.
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I have vague theories around how the social media landscape is just "future shock" over and over again. Everything moves and everyone gets left behind. Nothing is ever as it was, nor evermore will be so. What comes after will neither be better nor worse, but will always be different.
Just as we can try our best but will never recapture the taste of our grandmother's home-baked bread.
Not sure where any of this is going. Just random stream of consciousness. But not the same stream we stepped in yesterday.
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Also from what I dimly remember, there were a lot fewer social networks around when LiveJournal started and its major focus was sort of naturally writing -- fandom took it over for fic writing and reccing and there were a lot of pro authors from sff. (GRRM only switched over to his own blog what, several years ago?) Now the internet is a lot more image-based, and if I want to post something, there's DW, twitter, instagram, tumblr, discord, and so on....we're spoiled for choice but that also means there's no central hub for a lot of people.
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Glad to hear everything's going mostly-well. And that dissertation topic sounds like the perfect blend of fannish meets classics. ;-)
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And, ha, I'm glad to hear you think so on the dissertation topic. It's very properly scholarly and everything (I hope), but I did point out some of the fannish connection in my cover letter when applying to a job at an MFA program that wants someone to teach genre creative writing. "I may appear to be a mild-mannered classicist, and yet--!"