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A Nomad's Life (End) | 17 comments (17 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Epilogue (4.00 / 17)
Sometimes I wish I could write I made this stuff up, but, with exception of the occasional artistic flourishes I'm wont to, I haven't really.

Two months and extensive negotiations later and I've put my PhD, and hence South Africa, on hold for this moment, and it may well turn out to be permanently. What has become strikingly clear is that the PhD I aspired to finish in 2006 is dead in the water, and its execution is unattainable for me in every practical angle.

I've slipped out of South Africa and flown back to the Netherlands over the course of this week, and am caught up with reorganising my life. I might go back into geology, I might not - the past two years have come close to burning out my desire for the histories of rocks. Unfortunately, I also know that I'm moderately good at studying them.

In the meantime, I've been rendered without employment. Not the best of times to leave academia and start job searching. But it is life. What can one do. I know that a PhD is a prerequisite for moderating ET, so at least I don't need to worry about that one.

On the upside, having written ten something diary posts, I'm pretty much convinced I want to go the distance with writing up some more and follow people's suggestions to start whoring the package at publication houses. Trouble is, I've no idea where to start, but all in good time. First I'd like to see my family. And alert my friends that I've come home.

Nomad, out.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 06:00:14 AM EST
Heh (4.00 / 10)

I know that a PhD is a prerequisite for moderating ET, so at least I don't need to worry about that one.

You do have to worry about that one. A good kind of worry, I hope, though.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 07:35:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Heh (none / 0)
I should be able to handle that kind of pressure!
by Nomad (Bjinse) on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 06:31:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Epilogue (4.00 / 2)
Good luck, for you new life - this point in life can also be a great opportunity.

And btw. I do not have a PH.D either. :-D

by Fran on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 07:46:37 AM EST
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Re: Epilogue (4.00 / 4)
Your writing has shown us the strain of simply living in Johannesburg - unless one were to set aside sensitivity or any concern for morality - let alone pursue a doctoral thesis involving fieldwork. Africa plus European settlement plus white supremacy, racial and ethnic distinctions throughout, wealth and utter poverty, meshed-up cogs in a broken gear-box. And you have to study rocks?

It's not surprising you have slipped away. Welcome back!

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 08:36:10 AM EST
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Re: Epilogue (4.00 / 5)
the occasional wonted artistic flourishes are what glue me to the screen, while the narrative lacerates away...

so glad you used our appreciation to spur yourself on to making such writing available to a much bigger readership, if you ever need a quiet place to write, you know what to do.

thanks again for what seems like an initiation of sorts, as i reckon it was for you, from the sound of it!

maybe all good art is initiation, all else iteration.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 09:52:43 AM EST
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Re: Epilogue (none / 1)
"good art is initiation, all else iteration"  Precisely. (in the sense of the word that I understand from your comment)

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 09:59:05 AM EST
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Re: Epilogue (none / 0)
i tend to think aphoristically, (the mark of a simpleton!).

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2009 at 03:43:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

A Nomad's Life (End) | 17 comments (17 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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