Seven Quick Takes: Malaise Edition

— 1 —

Ah, New Orleans. The Walker Percy Center Conference was terrific. I shall muster the energy to share substantive things about it. Now is not that time.

Driving back from New Orleans to Texas in a car, by myself, listening to whatever I wanted, was perfection. And I am also still real tired out.

— 2 —

One of the topics of discussion was a game initiated by one Betty Duffy in which the participants, having newly met in person after Internet friending, were supposed to guess one another’s favorite bands.

Look – I tell you what. I am no good at bands. I don’t pay attention to lyrics, I listen to one song over and over until I trample it to death, and I never buy music. This may explain my deep and abiding affection for Archie Bell and the Drells:

It means I am no fun at this game.

— 3 —

But: I really, really, really like Phoenix.

— 4 —

Why is “I can’t FIND my schoolwork!” an acceptable defense?

— 5 —

As far as our presentation goes, I was happy with it, although we definitely took pains to establish our complete lack of qualifications to be speaking at an academic conference. I think it’s best to go in emphasizing your strengths, and here I mean “weaknesses apparent to everyone.”

So, we were talking about social media and authenticity – I KNOW – you can’t escape the word “authentic” online, you just can’t. We were on about slide 25 of 30, cataloging ways in which the Internet deadens the soul, and came up with the rebuttal that…we met via the Internet.

I am not sure we sold that last point.

Really, though, the only thing I would have changed about the presentation would have been to ask the attendees beforehand, “show of hands – how many of you have a Facebook account?” Because I felt like some of what we talked about required a working understanding and semi-enjoyment of various social networks, which isn’t necessarily the case at an academic conference. Or at a family get-together, for that matter. I forget that not everyone is plugged into the Matrix.

For example, I am not sure this joke killed it as much as I’d hoped:

— 6 —

My mom’s in town for a visit, and as long as the air conditioner doesn’t break like last time, we should be okay. We’ve actually been having fabulous weather this week. I find cooler weather to be tremendously energizing.

— 7 —

Oh! Shout-out to the Prytania Park Hotel for finding my pearl earrings! I took them as a good-luck charm of sorts; they were a gift from my husband and had tremendous sentimental value, as he bought them at an iconic gift store that is no longer in business. When I got home and couldn’t find the box, I figured they were gone forever, but the hotel staff contacted me this evening with a very sweet notice that they’d finally turned up. We all (Elizabeth, the Darwins, and the gentlemen of Korrektiv) stayed at the hotel or one of its associated properties, and it was just perfect – reasonably priced, very charming, and in the case of our room, equipped with a postmodern spiral staircase that allowed me to descend from the loft every morning like a really clompy angel. Getting the suitcases up the spiral staircase, though – that was a challenge.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!