"It's the awareness, the full experience of how you are stuck that makes you recover and realize the whole thing is just a nightmare."- Dr. Fritz S. Perls
So I'm into the home stretch. Approximately 5,000 words to write and only a few more pieces of research to collate and I'm into the editing phase. Many thanks must go out to Leticia for her suggestion to collaborate with a fellow "metalhead" researcher in Paula Rowe of the University of South Australia. She too is working on a more sociological perspective of metal culture, especially amongst youth. I am very much looking forward to our correspondences.
So this week has blurred with eyes wearied by frustration and angst - work has been sporadic and to top it all off - I lost my wallet! And my watch broke! All on the same day! Now I have to spend money I don't have (the last $25 in the entire world was in that wallet, may I say. Oh and ladies, I'm single.) to replace the cards I was probably never going to use anyway. Oh, the irony!
But throughout my thesis portion of the degree, I actively sought part time work (preferably, but not exclusively in my field) to gain an income. I have been rebuffed more often than not with the usual reason being "You're about to earn your Masters' degree - why would you stick around once it's done?" The Catch-22 is that I've not yet completed the qualification which bars me from most positions; yet the jobs that I require for immediate income take a pass on my application, citing the imminent attainment of said degree as the reason. As the father of Gestalt therapy says above - yes, this does feel like a nightmare.
I could labor on from the generosity of family and friends, but ever since youth, I prided myself on self-reliance. But does that mean not asking for help? As a man, it takes a lot of courage in today's society to admit defeat and ask for assistance, lest it "dilutes one's potency or manliness." Such are the hidden horrors of a displaced masculinity. (But more on that another time!)
So, to boost productivity and assess the relative worth of keeping up my social media accounts, I've taken yet another social media moratorium. Aside from my blogs etc. there's no Twitter and Facebook for at least another week. Beyond that, who knows?
People are shocked when I hint at the inherent impermanence of social media especially now it's embedded into our culture so silently and so totally. With so many yet to be discovered technologies that may "change the culture completely," why are we so preoccupied by convincing ourselves that social mediums such as these are the "big things?" At what point did Facebook become a mandatory extension of ourselves much like reading and writing? At what point did we let it? Why do people assume rules and social conventions exist for these mediums when we are the departure point of their enforcement? When these are completely new entities? When the method of interaction has changed? The more you think about it, the sillier it becomes - well, at least to me.