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Friday miscellany
Apr. 5th, 2013 08:47 amHow to be an authority figure: Carry a clipboard
After a band concert at the high school the other day, I was waiting with all the other parents for my child to emerge from the band room. It was a real confusion of people, families waiting, meeting their performer and leaving, kids talking to one another, adults talking . . . And in that, a kid came up to me and said, "Do you know where we pick up the butter bread? I ordered four loaves."
I was really puzzled--then realized I happened to (a) be standing behind a table and (b) be holding my clipboard. I carry a clipboard around a lot--it gives me a hard surface to write on; it's a habit I got into in high school. And I've found that a clipboard identifies me as an authority figure--never mind that the clipboard has an I brake for mutants bumper sticker on the back that I put there in 1983, during a brief window in my life when, thanks to my roommate, I read X-men comics. The clipboardy authority trumps the bumper sticker.
It has happened other times. Once I was watching a 5-K road race--with the clipboard--and someone came up and asked me about the route and where to sign in.
I think it's like wearing a laminated card on a lanyard or a card attached to a shirt pocket with a silver clip--details that make you look like someone in the know.
Constellations before you knew their names
Were there constellations you discovered before you knew what they were, and did you give your own name to them? A comment by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ap_aelfwine in sovay's journal got me thinking about noticing the pleiades and not knowing what they were, but thinking that they were the most wonderful thing in the sky, a tiny, mini dipper, a tiny ship. A bunch of stars who hadn't gotten the message that they were supposed to put some distance between themselves and their neighbors, and so huddled right on top of one another. ... "Tiny ship" and "Very tiny dipper" was how I thought of them.
What searching for an agent is like
It's like trying to get a lawyer to take your case. You're going to have to go before a judge, and you want a good lawyer to argue for you. So you present your case to different lawyers, but they're very busy and maybe your case doesn't seem very promising to them.
It's heartening to know that in this day and age one can--to continue the metaphor--argue one's case oneself. I really liked whathaikujaguar had to say on the topic here. And in between self-publishing and big-six publishing are small presses, which offer some of the advantages of both routes--not sure how to work that into my metaphor. (The metaphor breaks down anyway, because it shifts from the lawyer being the agent and the judge being the publisher to self-representation being self-publishing and the judge being the reading public. But maybe small presses are like a combination idealistic lawyer and activist judiciary.)
A singing marsh
shaky cam!
After a band concert at the high school the other day, I was waiting with all the other parents for my child to emerge from the band room. It was a real confusion of people, families waiting, meeting their performer and leaving, kids talking to one another, adults talking . . . And in that, a kid came up to me and said, "Do you know where we pick up the butter bread? I ordered four loaves."
I was really puzzled--then realized I happened to (a) be standing behind a table and (b) be holding my clipboard. I carry a clipboard around a lot--it gives me a hard surface to write on; it's a habit I got into in high school. And I've found that a clipboard identifies me as an authority figure--never mind that the clipboard has an I brake for mutants bumper sticker on the back that I put there in 1983, during a brief window in my life when, thanks to my roommate, I read X-men comics. The clipboardy authority trumps the bumper sticker.
It has happened other times. Once I was watching a 5-K road race--with the clipboard--and someone came up and asked me about the route and where to sign in.
I think it's like wearing a laminated card on a lanyard or a card attached to a shirt pocket with a silver clip--details that make you look like someone in the know.
Constellations before you knew their names
Were there constellations you discovered before you knew what they were, and did you give your own name to them? A comment by
ap_aelfwine in sovay's journal got me thinking about noticing the pleiades and not knowing what they were, but thinking that they were the most wonderful thing in the sky, a tiny, mini dipper, a tiny ship. A bunch of stars who hadn't gotten the message that they were supposed to put some distance between themselves and their neighbors, and so huddled right on top of one another. ... "Tiny ship" and "Very tiny dipper" was how I thought of them.What searching for an agent is like
It's like trying to get a lawyer to take your case. You're going to have to go before a judge, and you want a good lawyer to argue for you. So you present your case to different lawyers, but they're very busy and maybe your case doesn't seem very promising to them.
It's heartening to know that in this day and age one can--to continue the metaphor--argue one's case oneself. I really liked what
haikujaguar had to say on the topic here. And in between self-publishing and big-six publishing are small presses, which offer some of the advantages of both routes--not sure how to work that into my metaphor. (The metaphor breaks down anyway, because it shifts from the lawyer being the agent and the judge being the publisher to self-representation being self-publishing and the judge being the reading public. But maybe small presses are like a combination idealistic lawyer and activist judiciary.)A singing marsh
shaky cam!
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