Yay! Things are Happening. Lot's of Things.

Well, my frustration and remorse for the past few posts about getting things done has exploded, calmed, exploded, and now seems to be calm for a couple of weeks, at which time it will explode again before hopefully settling into a nice, calm year of fun teaching.

That's right. I have a job, but that is not the most exciting thing. My fun, knitting-loving wife and I now have a special someone to knit for this coming January. Yup. We're expecting a baby! So, I will have the opportunity to use this blog as a desparate attempt to remain connected and expressive, like so many others. Oh, the hilarity that will ensue.

Ok, back to the exciting job front and impending move. I have been hired at Penn State - Erie for a lectureship. Yeah, I know. It's not tenure-track, and I only have a one-year contract at the moment. However, that leaves me free to pursue only the jobs that I really want this year, and if I really like it, like I think I might, then I have a very good chance to apply for a three-year contract beginning next year.

There was a momentary phase where my wife and I were considering buying a house too. We looked into it and found some great places at very affordable prices, but with so much going on, we figured that it would be better to rent for a little while.

The dust is settling and it looks like I will be teaching half composition classes and half something like the classes that I taught for the last two years. Expect some funny if vaguely described stories.

It is finished...er...yeah...no, really...It is...

I think...that is, I'm pretty sure that all of my paperwork is in for me to be officially considered Dr. Me. After the past week of going crazy trying to figure out the innane instructions for electronically submitting my dissertation and getting all of the last-minute signatures on my final draft, I have officially turned in my dissertation entitled "The Stranger in the Dark: Levinasian-Derridean Ethics in Noir".

It should be available to download on Ohiolink and various dissertation databases soon for all those of you who are dying to get your hands on this brilliant treatise on the confluences of genre, philosophy, and narrative. When I began this, most people thought that I was crazy to try to link these different ideas in one work. However, the most recent PMLA journal has a very conceptually similar essay that examines the Lemony Snicket books in terms of their ethical statement that grows out of a Post-modern/Gen-X perspective.

I think that I have some quibbling about whether the interest in ambiguous and self-refertial storytelling belonging just to my generation, but the author seems to indicate that she is not bounding the practice, just exploring one of its expressions.

On another front, I had a very nice interview about 12 days ago, and I am waiting to hear back about that sometime between now and July (nice focused window they have). Additionally, I have an interview this Thursday and Friday for another position that would be equally nice.

So, hopefully, I will soon be able to inform all of my beginning on truly kicking off my academic career from the other side of the educational fence.

Things keepin' on...

I want to post briefly before class starts in a few minutes. Of course, none of my students are actually here 10 minutes before class, but what can you do. It is a paper turn-in day. So, they are probably all down in the computer lab printing them as I type.

Let's see. I had a great interview at RIT last week, or I thought it was great. I immediately meshed with the faculty and felt very comfortable. There was a small snag, when the DVD player that I had requested for my little presentation lacked a remote. I took it casually and just explained the clips that I had planned on using and how they related to my research and teaching. I haven't heard anything yet, but then the department chair had said that it could be decided last Thurday or in July. It just depended. Apparently, everyone take two or three weeks off in June. I get to hurry up and wait.

I have all but about 20 pages of my disseration revised into a form that is at least not embarrassing. I have to keep reminding my self that the best dissertation is the finished one. Besids, even with electronic databases, no one will read my work until I get it published.

We are excited because some of my bestest friends from college are coming to visit for a couple days in a couple of weeks, but we ar sad because some of our bestest friends in the area are moving. Some are going to North Carolina, and others are starting grad school in Bloomington, IN. So sad. I suppose that it would be easier if I didn't feel like I was always treading water and waiting for something to happen. The zen thing to do would be to become more comfortable with the water and accept where I am, but I'm not very zen.

Anyway, students are finally showing up, wih 5 minutes to spare!