Grad student recreation

There are two basic schools of thought among grad students on how to spend recreational time:

1. Get drunk and avoid shop talk, except to bitch about shop; or
2. Get drunk and talk shop.

I fall firmly into the first camp. The stress and intellectual rigor of grad school are mentally exhausting. Before starting, I would have understood a phrase like "mentally exhausting" metaphorically, but now I know what it feels like for your mind to actually be tired, too tired to continue doing brain-like things. So when I don't have to think deeply about anything, I prefer not to. I like to drink High Life and yell at people about whatever I happen not to like at any given moment.

But I think I may be moving into the second camp. It's a biproduct of the economy. I'm growing to realize how slim my job prospects really are, and how little these years of grad school are likely to contribute to whatever career I use to make an honest living once I've finished my PhD. The "professor" thing may yet work out, but it's too much of an outside chance to be much of a motivator anymore. So I'm hoping to rejuvenate a little intrinsic interest in what I study--embrace the life of the mind, pursue knowledge for its own sake, etc etc.

What am I interested in? Good question. I've lost sight of that in the past couple of years. But here is the question that still bugs me more than any other: how does religion work? If religion is revealed by God, why are there so many, and why are they all so simultaneously contradictory yet plausible? And if they are purely a human contrivance, why are they so appealing, and why do they have such staying power. No single flip answer satisfies.

So expect more about that. Especially if you have a beer with me.