I get an email from Ben Hinchliffe asking if I would be interested in a year's free trial of Inference for R, a plug-in which allows you to haul whatever it is you've been doing in R into Microsoft Office.
Fresh from the Ed Park meltdown (2C2E) I've been thinking that what I should do is go back to the States to live with my mother and get a job at Waffle House: 1. I love Waffle House; 2. There are 4 Waffle Houses in Frederick, Maryland, not far from my mother's home in Leisureworld; 3. Leisureworld always conjures up a combination of the Stepford Wives and Westworld, a film in which Yul Brynner runs amok as a robot cowboy; but 4. There are 4 Waffle Houses within striking distance, how bad can it be? 5. TAR ART RAT says his grandfather lives in Leisureworld and is having a rare old time.
I then read an article in the New Yorker about DFW's last book, a book about someone who works at the IRS. For DFW, this was the ultimate in boredom; he was trying to grapple with the concept of a life in which grace was found in the heart of boredom. I want to argue with him: DFW, you just don't get it. You don't know what it's like to have a quote-unquote job where the work you put in writing a text is nothing, the thing that pays the bills is the work you add to this nichts-an-sich by charming and waiting and charming and waiting and charming. What would that be like, to turn up and put in 8 hours' work and get paid for the 8 hours' work, instead of putting in 3000 hours' work and not getting paid because you could only add a paltry month of charming and waiting and charming instead of the three years that were industry standard? (I know what it's like, obviously; this is what makes Waffle House look so good.) I go to the IRS website to check out employment opportunities; that sounds so good, that sounds so good.
But all this time Inference for R has been lurking at the back of my mind. According to Ben Hinchliffe, it works on Windows, Microsoft Office 2003 Professional, Microsoft Office 2007 all versions. I only have the Home/Student edition of Office (for PC and Mac); I normally use a Mac; but if I pick up a copy of Office 2007 I can try this out! I remember seeing a cheap copy at Saturn; I take the 204 bus to Kurfurstendamm, pick up Office 2007, head home, stop off at this café.
The battery in my laptop is about to die.
Last seen wandering vaguely
Quite of her own accord
2 comments:
ohh, "rare old time" if you like golf, poker, booze and talking about the weather--- jeez, it IS such a strange bubble there at Leisure World, isn't it?... maybe not stranger than any other bubble...
Stepford Wifes and Westworld. Priceless.
The house I now live in is almost identical to all the other houses, not just on the street, but in the town. It too was a planned community. I think the sign into the town says it's a "covenant community." It looks like I live on the set of Edward Scissorhands. All the houses look alike except each varies in color. You can't even paint your house without getting the color first approved by the association. Priceless.
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