Will it never end?

The question is, of course, rhetorical.

Of course it will end and badly at that.

But how cruel is a advisor to ok a thesis and then scarper off to parts unknown until June 5th. I just sit here and obsessively pick at the thing. I've become a more productive version of Oscar Wilde who once wrote that he "spent all morning putting in a comma and all afternoon taking it out."

As I read over that last paragraph I realize the word "productive" isn't quite right, since it implies some kind of useful product.. I have been... protean?... or maybe the paper has become protean and I've become some combination of Narcissus and Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice.

Who knows, I never understood British mythology anyway...

But the damned thing is growing again... 17,566 words.

Like the moron I am? I'm going to print out another version and edit the thing...

moron!

Dancing With the Stars (floating around yer head)

I know this shouldn't make me laugh...

Jerry Fallwell Dead and my Thesis is accepted.

Now, if Wolfowitz resigns and someone gives me a chocolate bar, my life will be completely happy.

Upon Holding a New Manuscript

There is something frightening about holding, fresh from the mailbox, a manila envelope which contains one of the last two unread works by My Big Korean Author. Because my thesis, already away to the evil powers that be, is done and I don't need anything upsetting the analytic applecart I have painfully constructed from lies, alcohol, hotel stays and misanthropy.

Which is why it is a brilliant that this work brilliantly fits with my brilliant analysis. This is sort of on the bonus "I'm a Genius (As I have always suspected)!" tip. In fact the mystery new piece is a rewriting (or similarly timed) of the problematic piece My Big Korean Author wrote. It is interesting to see that MBKA is bluntly addressing the US and Korea and how our cultures interact. Some of it is still a bit too obvious (The female narrator is named "Han E. Moon") but in general it is a really nice piece and it touches on a wide variety of cultural interactions, both good and bad. If more widely read I'm sure it would offend gyopo and wayguk alike. Which is all one can really ask.

If it ever gets to the book stage, this thing will flow in like butter...

Work unclenches...

I was gonna post about how happy I was to be sitting in a bar at 11:30 or so with only one major fucking event left this semester... I swear, I can do the marketing and PIO shit, but I hate event planning...

anwyay.. watching the news I saw something of interest to Swamp Valley College, wrote up a couple of pages for the Limpest President Ever and came to the bar to post it (No intarwebs at home). And there I was enjoying a beer, despite the Karaoke...

Then an asian guy in blue shorts and an Hawaian shirt stood up and started singing "The Sound of Music" in a voice that would make (FFFFVVVVCCCKK! Can't remember her name. Old White Lady Singer the Gays Love Who Was On Shows that Featured Shit Like Ventriloquism) shake in fear....

There can be no peace....

Anyway... Work should become less 23/6 (cause I'm too lazy a fvck to go ALL the way) in the weeks to come...

bonus...

Long Time No Post: Work And Thesis

It is the death-march time at work.... two weeks of ridiculous events to be planned and run all with the lovely interference of the District Office, which as usual has no idea what is actually happening on the campus. Every time there is a moment to breathe the DO sends down some other insane request. Add to this weekends full of sports playoffs and evenings spent studying Hangul. Busy busy

On an amusing work note, the "Hispanic/Latino" advertising firm which works at our sister college somehow managed to completely miss Cinco De Mayo and not get into the biggest local Spanish-Newspaper. Another triumph for consultancy! This, kind of incompetence, of course, will not stop the chancellor from ramming this firm down our throats, since their president is the brother of an important staff member at the District Office. Famiglia baby!

The "final rough draft" of the thesis has gone off to the advisor. It is 17,359 words of text (footnotes included) and it has gone to a total of 74 pages merely by virtue of adjusting the margins to MLA standards for binding. Amazing. Now I wait with bated breath for the advisor's response. If it is good it is all just formatting after that. And to figure out the paperwork and get graduated.

Assuming graduation, I then begin looking for work in Korea. I would take a job in September if one arose. This is the mid-point of the Korean academic year, so jobs are a bit fewer. It would also be a bit of a rush at this point, but I am ready if it comes to that. If that doesn't pan out I would go in March, but quit work in early January so I can spend some time on the road with the fambly. This would also allow me to bank a bit more.. well.. bank.. Which would be a good thing, as we say.

The BAG is nearly convinced that she should follow shortly thereafter. She has concluded her BA in English and decided she wants to be a teacher. I go and blaze the trail for 6 months or so (and sleep with a lot of Korean chicks!) and she follows for a year. She gets to try teaching, I get my teaching in Korea and we don't have to endure a two-year separation. Love is grand, and all, but two-years might be too much.

This much is certain, once I'm out of my current job it is unlikely that I will take another one much like it. I'll probably also never make this much money again, but at this point that seems unimportant. There is only so much soul to suck.

Since my research in Korea is going to make me a world-famous writer, cultural arbiter and man of wealth and taste, I suppose I shan't need a job.

It is a lovely vision! ;-)