That’s the theme of my life. I’ve been trying to track down a couple books that I need for my thesis. So far I haven’t had a lot of luck. While some are held by the U of R, I can’t currently get at them. So now I’m checking the libraries of other local colleges. It’s a brave new world we live in, and most card catalogs are online. I do get jealous of today’s teens who have far more immediate access to information than I ever did. I think that, at least from the access to information standpoint and that’s help in learning, it’s a great time to be growing up.

I’ve put in for a couple temp jobs a google that a friend hipp’d me too. And I’ve submitted for a few more jobs. As Tom Petty sings, the waiting is the hardest part. Starry Nites jsut posted for more jobs, if I don’t get something within the next week or so, I’m probably going to go for that.

Things are falling a little more into place. One of the major things is that I finally tracked down my Palm Pilot’s travel USB cable. This seems like such a trivial thing, but it makes a huge difference. Since I don’t have a permanent workspace yet, a fixed cradle is inconvenient. That means with out the cable I can’t sync the Palm or charge it. Which means that I stop using it. And those who know me best know that without it, I’m lost. While my memory can store gigabytes of useless pop culture info, I just don’t do well at remembering practical things like phone numbers and appointments. That’s where the palm comes in. Suddenly I feel so much more organized and ready to face the world.

I’ve got a job fair this afternoon and the possibility of some freelance work. I’m making a lot of headspace progress on the thesis. So today’s an “up day” as far as I’m concerned.

Drea comes home in a few hours. Which is wonderful. This stay was far longer and more demoralizing than the previous one, though she comes home far more healthy. Its funny how that works.

I terminated my leave of absence at Kodak today. It was a tough decision, but necessary for a number of reasons. It didn’t appear that any positions would open up (currently they’re only posting for 16 external jobs here in Rochester). And after news of the latest round of layoffs, I really had to question if that was an environment that I wished to return to. It’s bittersweet. I’m going to miss not getting back to seeing kodak.com’ers each day. However, we’ll still have tacos… hows next Tuesday?

And I’ve offically moved my Chicago graduation to December. Its a disapointment, but I need to do more research and reading to write the thesis I want to write. And at this point, I’d rather get it right then get it done. So perhaps, at the end of it, I’ll even understand Bourdieu.

Ok. As an attempt to move away from the doom and gloom blogs, I’ll tell you about my current plans and solicit advice. As you might know, I need a job. And I’m currently in the process of applying to a number of places such as McKinsey & Company and Harris Interactive. However, both processes are going to take a while. So, I need something to tide me over. And since I have a thesis to complete, it really needs to be part time. So I’m thinking either Starbucks or retail. The benefit with Starbucks (or a similar type of Coffee place) is that I get a discount on Coffee, I get some level of indy cred (admittedly much less if its Starbucks) and if I work more than 20 hours I get some form of health insurance. On the other side, if I work at a place like the Gap, I get a discount on clothes and can revamp my wardrobe, which I really need to do.

So wadda ya think? Or should I go the Wegmans route? Advice would be much appreciated.

Drea Update: She’s doing better. We’re hoping Monday. Thanks for all the notes of support.

Thesis Update: Drea’s doing better. Visit Headnotes to see my latest issues.

One of my latest sticking points is the usage of pronouns to refer to bots. While I realize there is a longstanding tradition of using personal pronouns (she, he, her, and his) to refer to machines, I have real problems anthropomorphizing bots. It just strikes me as a slippery slope for an academic to engage in. At the same time, calling the famed Tifanny_bot “it” all the time is just clunky.

My solution to this dilemma came from an unlikely source: John Leguizamo. Driving home from the hospital I heard him interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. Discussing his work on To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, he mentioned that the studio hired a Drag Queen to coach him and said something along the lines of: “They hired *pause* ohh, I can’t remember his real name. Her drag name was [X] and she taught me everything.” And that got me thinking about gender designations when it comes to drag. Clearly the absolute (genital/chromosome) sex of the performer never changed. He was a he. But while in the drag role the performer assumed the gender designation being performed. Like Lou Reed once wrote “then he was a she.”

What this suggests is that culturally the chatterbot program itself can be considered an “it” while the self it performs, Tiffany for example, can be referred to as “she.”