not quite yet...

I was just approached by my department chair to perhaps maybe if-come teach a class next year. I like the idea, and the class. I still need to discuss the possibility with the former professor, and consider what it will do for me work wise, but one class plus part time work plus dissertation completion wouldn’t be that bad, I don’t think… So, perhaps I'll stick around the academy for a little while longer.

posted by: schoolsmelt at 11:51 | link | comments |

more with the waking up

I am not going to be an academic. I haven't applied for any academic jobs, my state is undergoing severe budget cuts which means academic jobs that I'd want are pretty scarce here anyway, and I'm very placebound. I'm beginning to start to say goodbye to the life I've lived for the past seven years.

I relish the academic blogs on my blogroll, empathize with the trials and tribulations of teaching, of administrivia, of budget cuts, of feeling like there's never quite enough of quantity X to make things the way they should be. But the thing I'm going to miss the most, and the thing that doesn't get much talked about in spite of the fact that it's the only thing worth putting up with all the other crap, is the mental autonomy.

In my brief foray back into the world of work that is my future in some form, that's the glaring absence that I've noticed most of all. The ability to work on the fruits of one's own brain labor is practically nonexistent in the corporate world. If you're lucky, you get to work on problems that need a solution which only your specifically trained bran can provide, but that's not the same thing as only working on the problems that you think are interesting. I never quite realized that it was that specific thing that was missing back when I worked before, and I know I didn't always feel it when I was taking classes, but that freedom of exploration is what's taken me so long to get here, and in spite of how problematic it has sometimes been, is going to play a much smaller role in my future life. I wish I'd appreciated it more, and earlier.

posted by: schoolsmelt at 07:30 | link | comments (2) |

sprung, spring has

I suppose it was nice while it lasted, but I can't afford the slack any more. This morning I just received word that an abstract I'd submitted to a conference has been accepted. I'm in happy shock, since I've never submitted anything before, and the writer of said notice is one of my research heroes.

However, I still need to complete the coding and, you know, write it. Then I submit that to a second round of review for that piece, which is coming up shortly. I'm laughing when I'm not cringing at my new levels of overcommittedness. There's also a local event that I'm helping to plan, my new part-time job, and my own diss work.

In other good news, there are now also officially fewer days left in the month than there are between nc2's visit. It's a good month.

posted by: schoolsmelt at 08:31 | link | comments (2) |

my god, what have I done?

Wow.

So, I've got this new part time gig. Next week, I've got 5 hours of training on the corporate procedures of the largest company I've ever worked for. The timeframe of the project has expanded from a certain number of hours/week for to almost double that. The project looks both interesting and exciting and wonder of wonders, it ties into my research. However. I still need to make time to do my research.

As far as wakeup calls go, this one's pretty good.

posted by: schoolsmelt at 22:03 | link | comments |

Is it really this bad already? Again?

Overheard in the hall yesterday:

Professor 1: Hey, how're you doing?
Professor 2: Well, we haven't gone to war yet...

What the hell is going on? When did attacking Iran evolve so quickly from a crazy unneccesary idea that is doomed to fail given our overstrapped military and our current track record in Iraq, to an inevitability whose only question is when? I know, it's an election year and all, but this is fracking nuts.

posted by: schoolsmelt at 06:40 | link | comments |