The Iowa trip is over as of today. The part of it that stuck with me the most was a conversation I had with my buddy's girlfriend. She thinks one of my favorite repeating rants (I'll spare you the details, but the upshot is scientists are mean) would make a nice article in an urban alternative weekly. To be honest, the rant is not something I've been putting much thought into lately. But intelligent and sincere interest in one of my ideas is such a contrast from the glad handing corporate bullshit I've been dealing with for the past couple of years. She's a rocket ready to take off too, already self published a bunch of stuff and just about to start a cherry job doing what she loves. Anyway, the convo was like a strawberry milkshake on a sick day. Hope that I can make an impact on something closer to my own terms, rather than navigate a maze of protocol and politics not knowing at what point I have sacrificed myself to the extent that any eventual victory on my part would be meaningless.
