Jeez. So, as little as a month ago, I was worried about getting a job in August. I hadn’t yet been accepted to a PhD program, and without that fellowship money guaranteed for the next year, I have to admit I was starting to stress.
But now that I’ve gotten that all wrapped up, I have gotten two . . . count em TWO . . . unsolicited offers for Adjunct positions at local universities. I might be able to take one of them, if they let me only teach one class (they want someone to teach two), but I don’t think my schedule will allow me to even consider the other.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about having options. But I wish I had known this was going to happen when I was staying up at night worrying about how to help keep a roof over our heads.
Meanwhile, the comics are coming along. So is my final graduation formality of a paper. I think I schould be able to have 15 pages or so on good old Chico Mendes finished by tomorrow. Maybe once I get another page or so finished of the comic, I’ll post them. Maybe not. I don’t want to jinx myself.
What happened there? It looks like I just took four months off from blogging.
Aw, shit. It looks like I gave up on that comic book I was totally going to do, too. Yeah, there are a few pages that I finished but didn’t post, but I was feeling a bit too restricted by the format I was working in. Form is good–in fact, it’s the basis of comics writing–but that form just wasn’t right for what I wanted to do. Too many words and too little room for drawings. I like the idea of a drawing and printing 1/4-page pages, but if I try it again, I’ll do it pictures-only.
Oh, did I mention that I finished my thesis? No? Well, I did. I’m now a Master of History. Sounds pretty impressive, huh? Also, I enrolled in a PhD program not far from here (though not here), and will be commuting down a couple of times a week starting in the fall to take classes, and TA for one as well.
But if I learned anything at all from the last semester, it’s that: a) I need to keep to a strict work schedule, and: b) I need something creative other than history, parenting, or cursing to help keep me sane. So, instead of flipping through the channels on the old television for two hours everynight after the kids go to sleep, I’m going to dedicate myself to drawing more comics.
Honestly, I’ve been inspired by the comics and general bloggery of my comic book twin, Alec Longstreth, to really make this a long-term commitment. I love drawing comics, and I love it when people read my comics. Also, I want to create something that my kids can read when they get older and maybe feel like they know me a little bit better. Sappy? Maybe. Unrealistic? Not really, unless you count the whole “doing something other than history” thing. But I’m going to do it. You hear that, me??
The semester is practically over. I have one eight page paper left to write, but at this point, eight pages is like taking a nap.
But, I’ve resolved to write the first chapter of my thesis before the end of the semester (actually, it’s a ploy to write one 20 page paper instead of two for my two readings courses), so I could be gathering up notes right about now.
But then there’s this . . .
And, of course, this . . . .
Not to mention this . . . .
What’s a guy to do?
Speaking of which, where are all of the good daddy blogs? Or, I guess, all of the good comic-nerd-history-grad-student-daddy blogs?
Next semester, I’ll be writing my MA Thesis. I did the bulk of the primary research this past summer, during two separate trips to the Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison (a city, btw, that is famous for having more Panera Breads per capita than any other city in the world). I was honestly surpised and pretty impressed with how much research I could do in an eight hour day when research was all I had to do. So, in between trips to the botanical garden, swimming in the hotel pool, and eating at Panera Bread (seriously, it’s like, bank . . . bar . . . Panera Bread, what’s the deal, Madison??), I was able to rough out a basic story that I want to tell. It goes something like this:
