Oh! The Freedom! Notes From Seattle #6

So I have a sense of freedom right now because I managed to land a job as a barista. University of Washington's University Book Store has a cafe, and that cafe interviewed me and gave me a barista job. I told them I would take the job. I'm starting on September 7th.

It is also curious because I am waiting to hear from Elliott Bay Book Company as well. That one may be more desirable just because it is located in Capitol Hill, and I want to live in Capitol Hill. So it would be nice to live and work in the same neighborhood. But either way it doesn't matter if Elliott Bay takes me or not because I have this other job locked up. But I probably would take Elliott Bay if they offer me the job. I will just have to wait until Tuesday and see.

But the best part of this all is the freedom I now feel to read and write. I can read and write whatever I want now. Before I was offered this job I was still doing some reading and writing. I managed to finish my Society's Implicit War essays, I managed to finish some books, but I always felt a little guilty. I always felt like, 'man I shouldn't be wasting time on this I should be looking for a job'. But now I have a job lined up and I can do all the reading and writing I want. That is what I care the most about. I only want a job so I can do my own work whenever I want.

Also I went out with friends last night and had a great time. Just was excited to be out and almost employed and stuff. But man I spent too much money yesterday. I splurged on books and then ate out and just spent too much money. But oh well. I will start reigning that in, for sure. Need to. But also I will be working soon and can afford it right now. But still. Don't like seeing how much money I have spent. But whatever.

In any case, this is about my reading and writing. I bought three books that excite me: The Shallows, Reading in the Brain, and Virus of the Mind. All about culture and neuroplasticity. Good stuff.

And I am currently working on three writing projects. Three different problems/essays. One I accidentally published before I finished, and will be the first thing I finished. It is called On Creativity. I like having short titles, and creativity fascinates me. The next shorter one is on mindfulness and the fact that I still have to think about the past and the future. So how am I supposed to stay in the present moment if I have to think about other times? Frankly, I think simulation theory of mind has some nice tentative answers for me, so I'll be exploring that. Then the last one is a much larger project that is gonna be a real challenge. My pretentious title is 'The Genealogy of the Modern Mind'. I am trying to articulate some connections between history, theory of mind, and neuroplasticity. That is actually the subtitle. 'History, Theory of Mind, and Self-Directed Neuroplasticity'. I think it is gonna be really specifying the pragmatics of some of my ideas, especially this idea on intellectual insurgency that I just articulated at the end of my SIW essays. Anyways, I'm free to do all of this now. And I plan on doing it.