Saturday, October 13, 2007

San Francisco is the bestest

Of the 12 candidates for mayor, my favorites are:
(original punctuation and capitalization kept. ellipses inserted for omissions)

Grasshopper Alec Kaplan: Vegan Taxicab Driver
"Restore festival, carnival atmosphere; musicians, Artists, fun love. Remember to smile, laugh, celebrate our wonderful existence... Legalize everything. Legalize prostitution... Make everyone happy. No problems, only solutions."

Harold M. Hoogasian: Florist/Coffee Farmer
"The Four Way Test:
First, Is It The TRUTH?
Second, Is It FAIR to ALL SAN FRANCISCANS?
Third, Will It Build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Fourth, Will It Be BENEFICIAL to SAN FRANCISCO?"

John Rinaldi: Showman
"Hi, my name is Chicken John and I'm running for Mayor... What are my qualifications?... I converted my truck to run on coffee grounds with zero emissions."

Michael Powers: Nightclub Owner
"My creation of the Power Exchange adult sexual liberation experience shows my capacity to embrace every kind of alternative lifestyle and manage multiple environments housed in one totally law-abiding and successful business... I cannot be bought, nor influenced at any price, and will lead by example."

George Davis: Writer/Nudist Activist
"This is a One Issue campaign which is to Make Golden Gate Park Clothing Optional like the major urban parks in Europe. For other policy issues, a well known City Manager will be appointed. Thoughts for today: 1. You are free to be nude!!!"

George Davis is actually my top favorite because he volunteered to usher at Dandelion Dancetheater's latest performance of DROP. He was a very nice and quiet guy, who complied with our request to wear something out of character by wearing pants, a button-up shirt, and an apron with the image of Michelangelo's David. Other than the button pinned to his apron, he didn't mention his candidacy and he folded all the programs quite nicely. Go George. Good luck with your campaign.

Friday, October 12, 2007

graduate school (ramble. read at your own risk.)

I have been lazily looking at graduate schools - and by lazily I mean the super duper American lazy way: I signed up for an e-mail service from the Princeton Review that, about three times a week, sends a list of several programs right to my inbox. I then look through then and say, "Darn it, Princeton Review! I told you I was interested in Liberal Arts and other such useless degrees! I don't WANT an MBA."

Occasionally there are somewhat promising ones. I even requested a brochure from some Monmouth University in New Jersey. I forget what the program was the enticed me... Which is perhaps the problem. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Typically, I scan down the list of programs that has just arrived in my inbox and think, "meh." Nothing jumps out. Nothing says, "Yes! This is the program to enrich your life and provide you with the tool necessary to go somewhere interesting with your life."

I moved to San Francisco with the instinctual feeling that it would do just that - give me tools, connections, and a fantastic experience. It has, though not particularly in the way I expected it to. It is still hard. I am still not sure if I can put words to the benefits the entire experience has given me. And I am beginning to see that I will not want to do what I am doing forever, so I need to find pathways to other things. And, because my parents are both highly-educated lovely people who credit their education with their current quality of life, as a beginning to exploring options, I am looking at grad schools. Lazily.

Lazily. I still feel as if I haven't gotten everything out of my experience with SFCD that I've wanted to. I can see that I'll need to leave sometime, but I'm not ready to go yet. So what do I want to get out of this program before I go?

A good friend, someone I grew up with, is currently spending a year in Singapore after graduating from Standford. We have grown closer in recent years, and despite the fact that we are in widely different career areas, are able to discuss the process of finding your path with something profound in common. Perhaps it's because we're both only children of scientists who grew up in Los Alamos. Perhaps we have just the right amount of radiation in our brains.

I digress. If I analyze our recent conversations, it seems that we struggle between two sides of making a life: the results at the end of the line vs. the quality of life during the process.

It's actually simple said like that, but being caught up in it isn't quite so. In considering to grad school or not to grad school: I know I would NOT like having to spend hours reading text-books, taking notes, attending lectures again. But I would enjoy learning. I would enjoy increasing my knowledge and understanding of the world.

(AHA moment: I want my daily practice of dance to be able to increase my knowledge and understanding of the world. Otherwise it is not feeding my complete self. I do, in fact, crave learning, even though I am often lazy about working at it. Note to self: is this what you want before you go? What would I want from the next step in my life? I feel like I may be entering a phase of intense thinking about life. Hoorah.)

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

les pensees (misspelled)

I was upset today because I didn't want to accept my editor's edits. Some of them were good - tricky work usages, style blah de blahs that I'm a general dunce at catching, better word arrangements, but others I disagreed with wholeheartedly and didn't want to accept. I initially decided not to do so, then decided to put the writing aside for tomorrow when perhaps I will be more open to change. Then I decided to think of the editing process as a communication and as my editor as a good-hearted guy with a wealth of experience in writing and copy-editing who is offering up his knowledge to my young-hearted attempts. (Which he is; which I am.) Then I decided that, in the morning, if I can see where he was trying to go with the changes and can think of a darned good reason why I disagree, I will not accept the changes.

Another thought from today: Communication is my degree, not my strong point. (Do you stand by that, my lonely reader? Do you still read this post, or did my months of silence lead you to other nightly internet habits?

Finally: My emotional parts need more close attention. Another thing that is not my strong point. I blame heritage.