Our department Christmas party for tonight was cancelled, I'm cranky, so what is there to do but whine?
I'm halfway through writing a post for Houseless Tuesday tomorrow, defending the show against accusations of being formulaic – in particular, a comment posted to last week's episode review, and the funny nod to the accusation in the episode itself. And then I read a post that, in the context of a much broader point, says pretty much what I'm arguing – that it's less of a formula, more of a framework. Only Dead Things on Sticks Guy says less of a formula, more of a template. And he's a TV writer so he's all insightful and shit. But his post is about a lot more than that, talks about way more than House, and doesn't babble on about My Name is Earl the way I am, so screw it. I'm posting tomorrow anyway, even though I could just do this – go read The Second Episode Problem.
What I really want to whine about isn't whine-worthy either, it's pretty much just evidence that I need to be slapped when I start to overthink things. I got an invitation from the Blogcritics SciTech editor to contribute to the Best of 2005 list for that category. She wants to know what I think is “the most important technological innovation of 2005.” The invitation itself is a little peculiar in that I usually write movie and TV reviews for them. I have an English lit degree. I have no real SciTech geek credentials, except web editing, I guess, and I have written about podcasts.
But really, it's the “the” that scares me. I'm not an absolutist. My rods (or is it cones) can't see black or white – just grey. I can't name a favourite movie – it changes from mood to mood. I am afraid to commit to an absolute opinion. If you ask me for directions to my home, and we are standing on my doorstep, I will point and say “I think it's right there.”
Plus, while my technophobe coworkers think I'm a technogeek, the woman who has a dollar seems rich to the woman who has a penny. I have no silicon chip inside my head. I'm not qualified to name “the” most important technological innovation. All the true technogeeks at Blogcritics will probably take care of the important gadgety stuff anyway. She wants interesting responses, from any area of science or technology. I work for the medical system – I should try to represent that. Somehow. Think someone will invent a cancer-curing technological innovation between now and the end of the week? Any other ideas?
I could decline to participate, but it sounds like a fun thing to think about and research during my cranky week. Yes, torturing myself with overthinking when I'm cranky is fun. Shut up.
