Emptybottle.org: The Solution To A Midlife Crisis

Greg Knauss, who is one of my favorite writers-on-the-web, has started up again. Years ago I remember being pointed to his site, which was closed at the time, and ending up reading reading through most of the archives in one sitting. If you haven't read his stuff before, well, you'd damn well better start now.

Here's a taste:

What do I want to do with my life?

That's easy -- or, rather, it's easy to answer. I want to create something, build something, make something, with my hands and my brain and whatever tiny bit of passion I can muster. It doesn't even matter what, really: cool things; fun things; interesting things; silly or stupid things. Things that make other people happy, or amused, or enraged, or some goddamned way other than what they were when they came in. Things that get a reaction, that have some sort of meaning, to me and to others. I want to exercise my creativity in ways that corporate and familial responsibilties don't offer. I love my family and like my company, but they both need me to be solid and predictable and reliable. I want to be that, of course, but more, too. I want to do something.

Comparing and contrasting with this recent post from Dave Winer, which I marked 'Keep New' in Bloglines because it annoyed the piss out of me for some reason, and I wanted to keep poking repeatedly myself in the eye with that stick until something useful came out of it, may help you to see where I'm coming from, here.

When bloggers get together, the topic of every session drifts into "How do we make money doing this" no matter what the original topic was. It's the same way with artists. It's so funny, because bloggers don't do it for money, and no matter how you try, the discussion never actually uncovers any ways to make money, it's just about how we need to discuss how to make money.

Share and enjoy.

About This Post

What is this? Why am I here? What does it mean? Where should I go now?

Well, this is a post to the personal website Emptybottle.org. It was posted by your genial host stavrosthewonderchicken on May 3, 2006, and is titled The Solution To A Midlife Crisis. It was published to the categories: People Say Stuff Sometimes. In any of those places you might well find other similar things that will bring you Super Double Happiness.

Note: Super Double Happiness is not guaranteed. Void where prohibited by local regulation.

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The previous entry on the site is Ball Squeezing Time, and the next one is Sometimes I Make Myself Laugh.

Enjoy your stay, and please indulge sensibly.

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Comments: You got fingers, right?

4 Comments |

1
kent said

It started with funny sounds, that sounded newly funny. Snap, snapz, ssssnapzz, whirrrrrr, zzzzplud. I glanced over at the old dog -- Charmsquarky hadn’t moved, barked or even raised his head (as he normally would in these types of circumstances) to inquire about the funny new sounding noises. Then it occurred that the noises began by ratattattating around inside my head, carried away by something and then commodius vicus recirculationed back. The snap, snap snappeezies were actually the sound of neurons resynapsing again. Just like they synapsed in yars of olden! Neurons and gluons and electrons and sinewy globs of globules all dancing around doing the tango mushy, mushy: limitedonlybythe exoskeleton we cordially refer to as our noggin. Wonderfully ah yah yah! Thank you for the link!

May 3, 2006 10:47 PM
2
stavrosthewonderchicken said

Holy shit, fishrush lives! Welcome back, Kent, old fellow-traveler! Or if not welcome back, at least good to see you're still around...

May 4, 2006 3:02 PM
3
dv said

This is it. This is how life works. The big "42" you've all been waiting for... The few percent of the people at the top of the food chain make all the money. Everybody else just does what they do because they have to.

May 7, 2006 3:27 AM
4
Marina loves pictures said

Seeing people in the same situation always helps to me. I guess humans need some sort of a reference or a hearo to look at.

May 9, 2006 10:39 PM