Leave No Rock Unturned. Cool. It's happening on the same weekend as that crazy 3-day novel thing I'm planning to do so at the moment, it is uncertain if I will be able to come up for air to do this.
Washington Post's article on Latino Interns - a different perspective....or is it? A much better articulated piece than what I was ranting about here. Why is it that because I'm not white, that I do not conform to some Caucasian ideal, that people automatically assume that my real identity is not that of a North American? Why do they assume that even when perfect English comes out of my mouth?
The most daunting numbers I've seen yet. This is only scary if you've gone into grad school with tunnel vision. Sure, there's still this perceived stigma for pretty much any job outside of academia, but these days, you've got to keep your options open. My philosophy is: there's no such thing as fate or destiny. You don't know what the future will bring you. So don't cross off a job opportunity just because someone sneers at it--because someday, it might mean the difference between having alternative work that you happen to enjoy or bitterly flipping burgers because you can't get the "perfect" job.
Narrative Book-Fiction for Grownups. Why must there be certain books for "grownups" to read? And why must "grownup" be associated with "complex", plodding, and storyless drivel calling itself lit-fic? What's so good about reading stuff for "grownups" anyway? The critics might approve--but how much influence do they hold on people's real lives anyway? None. If people are seeing only two choices for reading: lit-fic vs. bestsellers, then something about book marketing and literacy education has to change. Don't let some English professor or a bunch of rankings on The New York Times tell you what's good--good is subjective. I think there are plenty of interesting midlist authors getting overlooked--simply because people don't venture that far in the bookstore or they're overwhelmed by the variety. Of course, if people read more in the first place, they wouldn't be so leery about picking up a dud...
