When knowing is half the battle.

Okay, so I don't really have that much to do as I sit around the Gainesville State College (Oconee campus) Library, waiting for the possibility of a student who needs writing help. I guess one might argue that the potential, the waiting itself, is a kind of exciting suspense...but I think that that one would really need to get a life, and maybe go see a scary movie. (But take me, 'cause I want to see this).

I have officially declared that this week is "Get Papers Ready for Possible Publication Week." A newly created holiday, though not as cool as this one. Which means that I spend about an hour every day looking over my previous writing and editing it a bit, another 1/2 hour researching potential journals, and probably about 15 minutes debating my worth as a scholar at all. Even in the field of Science Fiction, which I can now claim as "my field," since I officially have an M.A. with a thesis on that subject, and that makes me "one-of-the-gang," I feel like a kindergardener who somehow wandered into the reference section at Congressional Library. Look at all the pretty books! Oooooh...words...! And they even have Where the Wild Things Are! . . . which I suppose is in the reference section for some doctoral candidate who's writing a dissertation on... Songs of Innocence: the subjectivity of story in children's narrative. Or something.

Anyway, it's like that old commercial on NBC, with all of the movie-stars and rock-idols making obvious statements about how to live your life: "The More You Know." The only thing is, those sage-like celebrities never finished the dratted sentence. It should be: "The More You Know, The More You Realize the Indescribable Vastness of the Previous Research and Thought in Your Field and Thus Your Own Pathetic Peon-like Quantities of Knowledge in Said Field." Or, in layman's terms (for the general populace - this is Public Access, after all) "The More You Realize You Know Nothing At All." And, for the harsher of tongue and the generally flippant, "The More You Realize You Suck Big Time."

I have a plan, however. Today, even though I was seriously distracted by my older papers and their possibilities, I will restrict myself to only the main one, The Big One, as it were, and its potentialities. (Ya like that word, dontcha?). The Big One, the shattered remains of my thesis-become-presentation-become-publication, "The Grand Inquisitor: Seeking the Sublime in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space." I will finish it this week. You'll recall that this week is officially "Get Papers Ready for Possible Publication Week." Well, I will rephrase. From henceforth, this week shall be called, "Get One Paper Ready for Possible Publication Week." Less, pressure, you see.

I also want to add, before I head out, how proud I am of the Ej! She is mostly finished with her thesis, and she's still working as hard as ever to make it the best thing since sliced bread, instead of just a pretty good thing called bread. So anyway, she's pretty darn awesome. Go comment on her awesomeness at her blog. For you are finished here. This is the end. I'm going now. To work on stuff. Well?! Get outta here!

Oh, wait: Be sure to have a marvelous 3rd-day-of-the-week! (or second-day, if you're one of those crazy Latins or Europeans. Weirdos.).