Ever since the end of December, I’ve done little but laze around the house—eating like a pig and catching up on months of lost TV time. The funny (or is it sad?) thing here is that all this wasting away is shamelessly occurring not at my own home, but at my Aunt’s.
Not having a job or a regular means of income, I’ve given up my apartment in Ann Arbor and moved bag and baggage to their home in a town nearby. I am not particularly pleased with this scenario, but I am not exactly perturbed by it either. At least, not perturbed enough to do very much about it. But, just so you don’t come to the conclusion that I’m completely hopeless, I have to let you know that I’ve sent out some (a couple of) letters of application to other bigwigs in the field, and I’ve also had the chance to meet one in person for quite a while as he was touring these parts. From what I can tell, it appears as though people in general are impressed by my credentials, and something ought to materialise soon enough.
It’s just, I’m still wrestling with my existential crises (as always), and I’m unable to firmly put my foot into any door; which isn’t much of a surprise given I’m not certain I want to enter any of the doors before me. Either way, to add to the generally muddled state of affairs, I’ve been seriously contemplating a couple of things. Firstly, I really do want to take a proper break from all of this. I know that my state right now could be easily confused with a break in itself, but it’s not what I would deem a proper break. To this end, I’ve been looking up the usual relaxation hot spots (I seem to be particularly fixated on Hawaii right now) and trying to plan something which ought to help clear my mind.
And secondly, even if my offers materialise sooner rather than later, I don’t want to begin my academic work right now. I want to spend some quality time away from all of this and do something real with my life.
Now, all I need to do is figure out just what that is.
Why not freelance?
You have an impeccable sense of minimalist design and handy skills in PHP/CSS etc…
Some spare cash to blow is always good while you are waiting for other things to happen. :-)
Mukul: I hadn’t thought of that earlier. But now that I have, I think I am going to do some site-related things in my spare time. Not freelancing for cash, but following through on some of the many ideas I have had over the past months, but not the drive to do anything about.
Hi, thanks for your comment on the Weblog Tools about the permalink structure. You’d given an example of how both numeric and title-tag structure takes people to the same post. Is that something you had to customize? The solution is probably very simple yet it plays hide and seek with me.
Re: your post. Up until two years ago I was considered on a ‘break’ from life. I’d come back after a break and breezed through school, completing my Masters and all. But I couldn’t convince anyone that I’d always been learning or absorbing, as they say. The method, however, mystified folks, even near and dear that education is beyond grinding away at schools.
I think your decision to take a break would is a good one. It’s like getting off the highway, sitting down with a good cup of coffee, taking out the map, and re-routing your journey. Perhaps the decision will take you to a new destination or to the original – except with a renewed purpose. Lord knows some of us value purpose more than the mere existence of life. A blogger friend said meeting kindred spirits puts his existential anxiety at ease.
Your taking a break won’t fit into a pattern. And that, as Martha Stewart likes to say, is a good thing. All the best.
Emon: (Re: Permanent links.)
There is nothing for you to do, the default numeric links never go away. From your own web log, /archives/1079/ and /?p=1079 both take you to the same place.
If your question, however, was along the lines of changing (the non-default) /archives/1079/ to something else (also non-default), e.g. /archives/date/postname/, and you wanted to make sure that your earlier style continues to work, then you need to follow an article such as this. What you’re then trying to do is to define multiple ways of accessing your posts, but defining one as canonical.