Housekeeping

I weeded out some non-active links in the sidebar and added some. If you link to this blog, I'd be happy to link back--just leave me a comment (hint: I love comments). If you have blog reading suggestions, I'd be happy to check those out too.

Employed

Back in December, I left teaching. If you've read this blog for a significant portion of the 3+ years I've had it, you'll know that I've done so before. My motivation each time was slightly different, but I will say this: the outcome has been the same. I've come back to teaching. Again.

I gave the job hunt a good 10 months or so. I had few promising leads in that time, a few interviews, and a couple jobs that I would have been really excited to do. Alas, none of them panned out. As it became more and more apparent that the dream job I applied to and interviewed for probably wasn't going to hire me, I intensified my search and began to reconsider teaching. If I didn't have a job by year's end, I finally decided, I'd go back to teaching. Within about a week of getting the rejection from would-be dream job, I sent an e-mail to my department chair and told her I'd be up for teaching in the spring. That afternoon, I got a call--turns out there was a second-eight-week composition class. So here I am. Less than a month from now, I will be back to a familiar grind.

It's a good time to be back too. Enrollment is way the hell up at the community college and sister campuses, so while campus services are being strained to meet the demand, it also means there are lots of classes--and more classes than instructors to fill them. As anyone who's ever adjuncted knows, that's a situation far more rare and favorable than the reverse though not likely to change for a while if the economy doesn't pick up.

I still have mixed feelings about the whole deal, but the mix is... unexpectedly weighted with optimism. While I feel a twinge of regret that I didn't come around to this decision in time to have a full fall course load, I also know that I needed to come around it in my own time. Some people can be told the burner is hot; I've always had to burn myself to figure that out.

The last month or so has been a time of reconsideration on multiple fronts. I have changed my mind on a few important things, but those changes only came about after carefully weighing the risks, the benefits, my options, and the situation at hand. The balance of the scales happened to come up a little differently in the reassessment. So be it. I've learned a few things about myself from the experience, and for that at least, I am grateful.

So here's to a new beginning... and maybe even more blog fodder in the forseeable future!

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Now playing: Lucero - On The Way Back Home
via FoxyTunes

I bet there's a market for this...

...she says, straggling in a month and a half after her last post. Life's been a bit... uh, frustrating as of late, and I really try to keep the bulk of that off of ye olde blog.

Onward.

Dear Hallmark,

I know I have often bashed the outright sentimentality of your cards. I think I've found an opportunity for you to redeem yourself. You see, I have amazing friends. But I don't want a sappy, sentimental, "you make my life more meaningful and make me feel all beautiful inside" sort of message. It's just not me, and frankly, half of my friends would be right there with me in deriding the maudlin tone.

No, what I need for my friends is a batch of "thanks for the bitch session" cards. Moreover, I'm pretty sure you could get a nice little niche market with that sentiment. Think sharp, smart, sassy sort of tone--grateful, but not nauseatingly so.

When you come out with these, let me know.

Toodles,
The Twit

P.S. Ya know what? Screw that. I'll just make them myself 'cause I'm crafty like that.

Makeover time!

It's getting to be close to that time of year where I take stock of my life and usually find that I've fallen short of my personal goals. I daresay a full-blown existential crisis is around the corner.

It's time to make change in my life since other changes aren't happening fast enough, so I've started going to the rec center on campus, which I have free access to and have only just activated in five years of employment there...

...and I overhauled my blog layout for the first time since its beginning.

No such thing as altruism

I've argued before to people that I don't believe true altruism exists.

Here's my latest case in point: I've started volunteering. Now, volunteering is a very giving sort of thing to do, innit? The giving of time and energy in exchange for no monetary gain? Yet I myself know that my reasons are anything but pure, and I'm fine with that. I know I'm no Mother Theresa.

Reason 1: I have no library experience on my resume but would like to transfer into that line of work. I have no way of going up against people who have either the relevant degree or experience--so I need to get that experience in some way. You can't gain paid experience in a job that demands experience to get into it, so I had to find another way. Enter volunteering. Two afternoons a week, for a few hours, I shelve books or do other tasks that may need doing.

Reason 2: I like doing it. I love putting books and materials to rights, to seeing the rows of neatly lined up items tidied by my own hand. I like feeling productive and efficient, seeing the cart of unshelved materials dwindle down until it's empty, knowing I did that. I only work part-time and am searching for full-time; in the meantime, not too many productive activities occupy my time, so having something constructive that gets me out of the house and away from the computer is a bonus.

So there ya have it. I'm a selfish volunteer.

Recent reads and an unasked-for explanation

Since demolishing Jim Butcher's Changes, I've devoured four more books, all from my existing collection.

You see, I am a woman on a mission. I catalogued my personal library recently, clocking in at 500 books, which didn't include the miscellaneous books hiding out in my closet or on loan to people. Of those 500, about 375 were books I'd bought with the intent of reading them. Problem is, I always got distracted by shiny new books from the library and in the meantime I'd find more cool books to buy without reading, and thus the collection grew without being read... 500 books isn't the biggest, clunkiest collection, I grant, but it's still quite a bit, and pending a new job, I plan on moving--and I really don't feel like moving 500 books into what's likely to be a modest apartment.

Now, I am the type to re-read good books. However, most books are not re-read books--there are just too many books waiting to be read for the first time. So I've limited my library access to crochet books or reference. I am under firm instruction to read my own books and be merciless in determining whether they can stay or go. Some ground rules:

• Books have 50 pages to get interesting. This is a flexible guideline; a mildly promising book can have a stay of execution for however many more pages if I feel it is warranted. The idea is that I am under no obligation to waste time on a book that is uninteresting, thereby freeing myself up to move on to the next book.
• If the book is really, really, earth-shatteringly amazing, and I am absolutely certain I will re-read it at a later date, it can stay and join the ranks of "already read" books on my shelves. Neil Gaiman books, Douglas Adams books, favorites like Ender's Game--these all fall under this category. Many books do not.
• Books can be disposed of in one of several ways: 1. Sold back to the used book store, 2. Passed on to interested friends, and 3. Bookcrossed. The point is: they must go.

Like many people with full pantries, I often fall guilty of the pitfall of staring at full shelves and whining that there's nothing to devour. And yet, if I stare long enough and shift around the piles of overflow books, I can usually rustle up something. Most recently:

The King of Elfland's Daughter, Lord Dunsany - A classic work of high fantasy. I didn't exactly like this book and didn't really connect with many of the characters, and I was not a fan of his often flowery language. Yet somehow, it interested me enough to finish reading it to the inevitable happily ever after.

Survivor, Chuck Palahniuk - I did not like the two previous Palahniuk books I read-- Fight Club and Lullaby. They were too over the top and laden with shock for shock's effect. This one was a bit toned down--but no less satirical and scathing in its criticism of our culture. I wouldn't re-read this one, nor would I call it a favorite, but I actually enjoyed it. He spared our celebrity-obsessed culture no mercy.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie - Bittersweet little read of a book. One of many volumes that extoll the joys of reading and its power to transport us to other places.

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, Anne Lamott - Plowed through this one in a few hours of insomnia last night. It captures the ups and downs of the first year of parenthood in a refreshingly honest way--sometimes she outright resents the squalling kidlet, and other times he's this amazing creature that she can't imagine her life without.

Yes, that is a rather odd assortment to come from the same bookshelf, much less to read back-to-back, but eh. I'm eclectic.

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Now playing: Tunng - King
via FoxyTunes

Latest goings-on

In the background: a blanket I completed for a friend's wedding this weekend. Well, it's more of a throw, perfect to sling over the back of the couch or put over your lap on a chilly evening. The yarn is a thick chenille, using up about 6 skeins of my out-of-control stash. And no, you're not seeing things--the bands of color are indeed of varying widths, according to the pattern. More or less. I did add one more repeat, which does throw off the proportions a bit, but eh. It's a perfectly serviceable blanket, and the chenille makes it drape so nicely--it feels like a real, substantial blanket on your lap.

In the foreground: a cup of herbal acai berry tea. I love drinking red tea in a clear mug--it's like sipping liquid rubies or something.

Also in the foreground: the latest installment of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. That's a signed copy too, I'll have you know; I waited two hours in line for that. Ahem. Anyway, I've said repeatedly that it's a rare series that gets better as it goes, and Dresden Files is rare indeed. The stakes go up a little more each book, and in this one, hoo boy, did they. The pressure begins on page one and is unrelenting. "Changes" is an apt title--by the time the dust has more or less cleared, readers are left wondering where the series can and will go next. Some of the curveballs I saw coming, but others were gut-wrenching. I almost want to go back and re-read the previous 11 books to see what things I missed. Sigh. So many books, so little time.

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Now playing: Hot Water Music - Paper Thin
via FoxyTunes