lost the plot

I'm noticing that, after a period of being pretty effective with my time and on top of things, I am really bad with time lately. Not in terms of sleeping in (though I did this morning, and luckily ended up not having time to take the train to work), or missing appointments, or anything like that. I'm talking about a certain kind of unhealthy binging behavior that has, for a long time, been a problem of mine, that I'm only now starting to feel comfortable addressing.

What happened was, I didn't get home until about 10:00, but planned on catching the end of a certain basketball game, a certain baseball game and perhaps a certain hockey game. Since I'd gotten a lot done while at work today, I was going to just check my fantasy baseball rosters, turn off the computer, watch said games, and turn in early. (Aside: I worry that I sound like I'm 80 years old when I use the phrase "the computer." Anyway.)

I ended up wasting several hours of precious, precious time tracking down ultimately useless information. I spent at least 30 mintes reading news reports about the suspension of a 19 year old minor leaguer I'd been thinking of adding to my keeper fantasy baseball team (if you don't know, you really, really, really don't care). I finally realized who Sydney Pollack was and read reviews of about 8 films from the 70s to the 90s that I not only will not see, but will probably never look at again. This led me to read reviews of several of the movies showing at Cannes this year that I will also never even think about again, and... so on. It only gets less interesting, so I'll spare the details, except to say I've noticed the following: This kind of behavior is binging. Like binge drinking or eating, only not quite as big a problem, information binging leads to the joyless, pointless consumption of information. I don't have any need for most of the information I'm chasing (seriously, one of the tabs open in my browser right now is a wikipedia page for some operetta from the mid-90s), I don't enjoy consuming it, but here I am, up too late, consuming it for its own sake. All this crap distracted me from 3 excellent games and a good night's sleep. Argh.

One nice thing result is that it did lead me to the following quote (an actress in one of the useless articles I read attributed this to Flaubert): "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." That's kind of what I've been working toward in the past few years of my life, and definitely how I plan to approach my dissertation. So there.

mission postponed

Not moving to LA just yet after all...

Decided, after consulting with several people whose advice I trust, to postpone my move, at least I finish my dissertation proposal. Which means I'll be in Chicago at least through the winter.

Don't feel like writing much write now, other than to say I'm watching one of my new favorite shows, "Shameless," and it's great. Probably my favorite British TV show ever, other than Father Ted. A few years ago, I planned on doing my research around Britain's hysteria over "anti-social behavior*," which led me to read a lot about the British literary class' disaffection with Britain's white working class. Shameless does a good job of humorously and affectionately, with a minimum of condescension and/or romanticism, portraying what Americans might call "white trash" Britain.

Whether this is a sign I'll soon be back to working on an escape plan to Britain or Ireland, I dunno. My dissertation research will definitely be taking place in the US, so I doubt it.

(*"Anti-social," in this particular discourse [if you're interested, google "ASBO britain" or something], doesn't mean the same thing that, say, American clinicians mean, as in markedly unempathic, sadistic behavior. The British punditry meant it in much the same way Giuiliani and allies might use it in their "Broken Windows" approach approach to crime reduction**.)

(**Don't want to get into this, but NYC's decrease in violent crime during Giuiliani's tenure wasn't much better than those of cities that took on a much less authoritarian approach to social order, and analysts who did think that New York's crime rate went down for any specific reason usually, as far as what I've read, tied it to initiatives associated with previous mayor David Dinkins, or massive gentrification.)