Writing fer Money, Reward in Trash

I wish that little anonymouse I had a few months ago would come back... I'm sure she would have something to say about the fact that I'm writing a friend's thesis. ;-)

For money, of course, so that's ok since it's Capitalism. And maybe it isn't a friend.. you know.. an acquaintance, more or less..

But here's the interesting bit .... I cranked out 1000 words tonight without the slightest problem or second thought. Just line after line of prose as I peered at journal articles on Questia. And it's probably as good as any writing as I do. Which makes me wonder why I have such a hard time with my own writing. If the quality were higher when I was writing for myself, that would mean one thing. But this stuff was sleek, academic, and gloriously, gloriously empty. It will certainly get a degree.

As a reward for that writing I stayed up late and watched.... whatever William Shatner is now starring in. And it is spectacular trash. And by spectacular I mean totally trashy and awesome.....

Aaah.. and I bookmarked all those lovely jobs in Korea...

"Harvest Fest" and Harvesting Silly Seeds..

Spent the evening at a "Harvest Fest" with a local church - the can't call it Halloween because Satan might come, and the we'd all be covered in blood-red, ropey splooge or something. Still, plenty of fun as the kiddies went wild for our games and giveaways and we had three members of our Women's Softball team there and they are always wildly enthusiastic and full of incredible energy. They had just come from school and directly after practice, without eating anything, but delivered for the kids. I feel a little *sniffle* coming on.

Got home and I've had another paper accepted for conference presentation. Hilton Head, South Carolina, Mid January. Maybe take the BAG and make it holiday-like. I am getting good at the "means nothing but sounds like a conference title" thing. Because I'm working on a review of "The Dwarf," I came up with this monstrosity:

Representing Modernization: Infinity and Inversion in Selected Work of Kim Yong-Ik and Cho Sehui

Now that's just shameless, since I have no idea what I will write about. Still, it will be another trip to someplace..... else... and another notch on the publication/presentation bedpost.

And, of course, plenty of fun to write as I will have to delve much more deeply into the Modernization/Industrialization of Korea, which was a pretty interesting period.

Ho hum...

"SLO" Instructors? Redundant, right?

MCAA Conference paper is growing in leaps and bounds, since I am at a conference on "Strengthening Students Success." The conference is at the Moderately Nice Conference Hotel, and as a volunteer my only real job is to drink coffee and ensure that session evaluations aren't filled out by the session leaders.

About 200 educators are here from around the state, which virtually guarantees that Student Success will increase, at least for a few days, in their districts. The "theme' is Student Learning Outcomes (SLO), which is the flavor du jour in semi-administrative academia. It comes with the standard, "how dare you judge me?" reaction from faculty.

But all this nice time allows me to search the web for examples of conference papers (and boggle at how stupid I am - my writing style is linear as algebra compared to most of this papers) and lift little bits and approaches. Between this thing and a quick round-trip flight to LA this weekend, I should have the paper done by the weekend's end.

And the presentation I was going to wait for on Sunday seems to have been cancelled, which will save me the cost of another night in the Hotel. All goodage..

Entering the Academic Borg

When you can write a jargon-filled sack of shit like:

Kim Yong Ik (1909-1996) was a pioneering Korean-American author. His use of language and close attention to local custom, whether in Korea or the United States, was married to an often nearly arid approach to culture which initially seems without judgment almost intentionally acultural while at the same time larded with cultural Golems and reference points. His work was simultaneously traditional and nearly post-modern – it stood at a diasporic crossroad where perception is crossed by praxis. It was also deceptively simple, using language carefully, typically with a strongly defined narrative center.

you might just have been in academia too long!

But, you know... props to me!

The Rubber Stamp is In

The Division Chair chimes in and I am done...

I join with Professor (Name Redacted) in approving your thesis. It was well written and interesting. I will be submitting a change of grade form in about a week (I am away from the office currently) and you are ready for graduation. Please contact the graduation department for further information. Attached is information about binding your thesis. Congratulations, you have done a great job.

His failure to use the word "genius", "inspired" or phrase "for the ages" irks me. But I will take my sheepskin and skulk away.

Wheee...

CV for Korea done and will go out this weekend after looks at it..

relentless tinkering on the thesis but now it is surely done and I will send it off tomorrow goddamit! Up to 18,500 words which is just excessive!

all that's left is the abstract for MACCA...

BAG graduated last weekend and I should get pictures of that soon.

Mr. Korea became Mr. USA and I will see him this weekend to celebrate...

Yeesh!

I finally got a scuffle with my gym worked out and got my card back today. Which caused me to walk over there and work out. Let's say things are not well ... if my body is a temple its the freaking Parthenon. A three mile round trip interrupted by a simple all-body lifting routine (with extra light weights) and I might was well have been hit by a truck.. ;-) At least I listened to some Korean language on the walk section of my slow-motion suicide. So if I keep doing this it should be a study aid as well.

The last MLA changes to the thesis occur tonight and then it will be off to the department head for rubber stamp. Also tonight I need to finish my abstract for MACCA in October. That and polish up the CV for Korean eyes and I will be in good shape on my exit strategy....

BugFiddlery Redux..

17,737 words.. but much stronger...

Lovely advisor returns manana and I will send this off to get his final stamp of approval...

then I will have to stop for actual printing. ;-)

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!

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...

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! ;-)

Drafted...

The second rough draft of the thesis is now complete at 17,057 words excluding footnotes. Now it goes out to the various readers: The Sister, The Korean, and The Professor. Give them a week to digest the thing (while continuing to do some line-editing) and when it comes back roll it all in and send it off to The Advisor. After his changes, formatting and then, dare I say it(?), approval and binding?

An amusing note about “Barely Accredited Master’s University.” Apparently I need to file some notification of intent to graduate paperwork. How did I find this out? A random meeting with my academic advisor as she sat at a table in our “College Transfer” day. I’m sure they would have got around to officially notifying me about this.

Eventually?

Farkery and Thesis

A lovely summery day here in Big City. I have almost forgotten last month's snow and frigid temperatures. I decided that rather than doing anything useful or social I would grab my camera and take a ramble.

Just a little bit of useless fuckery, wander around out in the sun for no reason. Once I get out there I realize I should do a bit more useless fuckery. All this work has been boring and since the whole universe is premised on useless fuckery, it's not going anywhere.. well, it's expanding, but it's not going anywhere.. so why should I be any different? Except maybe not expand as much.

Not good for a fat guy.

Anyway, I don't want to stop at any of the bars along the way, so I decide to take a pill. On top of my desk/cabinet/mirror thingie I have a motley collection of pills, in sets of one or two. These have been collected from prescriptions over the years for various ailments and if I don't finish a prescription I just toss the remaining few onto the cabinet. One downside of this is I have no idea what they are. I know that the 3 big blue ones are some kind of anti-psychotic a friend gave me that he said would calm me down if I was nervous. I took one and nearly flipped out, so I really don't want those. I should probably grind them into some hamburger and feed them to the dog next door, or something. But after looking at my options, I picked one of three lovely pinkish and little ones and had it with a cup of coffee. I sure hope I don't get addicted.

I walk a few blocks and realize that I forgot to bring something to write on. I see an Office Depot and decide to go inside. Just inside the door is a lovely row of small digital tape recorders and I realize I must have one. After 20 minutes of puzzling, I make my choice. Then, standing in line as the woman is unpacking it from its protective case in the store, which is just as difficult for her to open as it is for me to open the package when I get out on the street (see the lovely picture of my cut finger - boohoo for me!), I start freaking out because I haven't picked up the pad and pen I came in for. The whole time I'm in there I'm peering over at the “school supplies” area to try to figure out if I have time to run over there and get the pen and pad before she rings me up. There is not such an amount of time. It isn't until I get out of the store that I remember that the I paid 49 dollars for a digital tape-recorder so I wouldn't have to use a pad and pen while I was walking.

So now I'm thinking that pinkish pill was pretty good!

And then some delicious coffee from 7-11 powered by ginseng, guarana and yurba mate. So now I'm wondering about (or is that hoping for?) potential complicative interactions between the pinkish pill and all the hippie-drugs in my caffeine. When I get outside the sun seems a bit brighter, the sky a bit bluer, and the sidewalk a bit more like undulating polka-dotted taffy. So I think it worked.

Further down I walk past the sign that influenced one of my Spanish-language adverts on the last campaign. It is here right above the advert. I'm not sure “influenced” isn't overstating it. It's the "Se Habla" part and I liked it and the advertising did work. :-) Anyway, I need to use the bitching stars in the next one!

Got down to a Mega-store and purchased polarizing something or others to cover my lenses. Unfortunately the store did not have a lens cap for the lens missing one, neither did it have the screw on cover I need for the back of one of my lenses. I'll pick those up tomorrow at Funky Little Kamera Store over by work. Then I'll have my camera kit in order, should I ever decide to leave the job and become an itinerant photo-blogger.

Up the stairs to the gym for some drug-addled exercises to protect the old back, and then back home with a lovely slice of NY style thin-crust cheese pizza on the way.

Tonight all about typing in latest version of edits on the thesis.. it is getting very close now.. 16,343 words. Still a bit long even with huge chunks cut out in revision. I've kept each substantial re-write of the piece, so all the bits that are out.. descriptive style, social ironist, even country by country analysis… are all on the computer somewhere.

The lovely BAG is coming over tomorrow night and she is working on her final papers. This leads to my favorite kind of couple night - close proximity and occasional chatter, but not the relentless conversational navel-gazing that women like. Men are so much better at communicating things than women are. If a picture is worth a thousand words? A grunt is worth a thousand pictures.

Anyway, at some point I'll have to declare the writing done, get to the formatting, and then get to the turning in and publishing.

Oh yeah, also saw a nice bumper sticker. Just about two weeks ago I was talking with some co-workers about how you don't see the stupid "W" bumper stickers anymore (This is Big City, after all, not Bumbfuck Tejas). I laughed.

What Good News Looks Like:

Hello Charles;

I enjoyed reading your draft and your insightful critique of (The Author)'s writings. I made my observations directly on the copy. In terms of overall structure, I have the following suggestions:

a) Make sure to reread your thesis for fluidity. There are certain sections that are repetitious and need clarification.

b) You may consider attenuating the biographical component of (The Author)'s life. You have enough text analysis that speaks of (The Author)'s condition as author and individual. You could omit a few passages about his past without compromising the integrity of your analysis.

c) Think about the choice of certain key terms: dislocation, relocation, dissociation, etc. and their application to the context at hand. Are you using these terms in a consistent manner?

c) Lastly, polish up your draft. The content is clearly there, but you need to go over your thesis and
clarify and reword certain areas.


Your overall thesis is solid, insightful, and unique. You should now concentrate on making the necessary modifications so that you can submit it.


Nice Work!

Holy Cow of the Blessed Sciences of Cowology.

Last night I walked home from work. Primarily to start working off some the tremendous layer of blubber I’ve laid on working on these degrees. It’s a lovely little 4-mile jaunt and with about 1.5 miles to go (at the point where I can see the last stoplight before I turn off Main St.) I was pondering how far off that seemed and POW.. it hit me…. Location… The Author is all about location. Specifically dislocation and relocation. And all palaver I’d been typing about vague concepts like “outsiderness” and “vision” were really ways to address dislocation and returning home.

Go fucking figure!

I got home and quickly re-wrote the first 30 pages and suddenly it all flows together and I’m not trying to stitch mis-matched half-ideas together. Now Confucius fits with exile, vision is not attempting to uneasily cohabit with writing style, and the story that didn’t fit is a clear steppingstone on the way to where The Author was working when he expired (probably from reflexive Anti-Americanism!).

The bonus to all this is that I also re-ordered the last 30 pages (they still need to be rewritten) and cut large swaths of off-point stuff (all of which I saved, since it was good analysis, just about other things) and still have 15 minutes before House comes on the air.

Now that’s a productive night.

And if only House had actually been on TV tonight. ;-)

I guess I don’t watch enough TV to know.

Something to work on when the degree is complete

14,000 words in the rearview mirror...

This is getting tougher, since I keep chopping out vast sections of stupidity, but it goes along - Every time I take a break to read something I have additions.. just added a fragment of his final (unfinished) novel to the list of works I discuss... it seems to show that his late-career alteration in style was heading somewhere..

I wonder how far off of my original proposal I am allowed to go? ;-)

Suweeeeeeet!

Advisor just returned and also returned my thesis proposal. No substantive changes and a few nice catches to boot...

Now it's time to get the old afterburners fired up again and start writing this puppah!

This will be a bit complicated by the fact I will also be training to play Women's Softball (it's complicated, but requires no surgery or hormones) with an every-day regimen. Actually, I hope the two disciplines overlap....

off to ponder......

Everybody's Happy Nowadays?

The Program Director has officially signed off on my thesis proposal. My advisor, now in Paraguentina or somewhere, now needs to chime in and I'm off to the races...

In news from the musically unlikely, the AARP has begun using The Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" as theme music in their adverts.

proposal is in...

not very impressive as I'm more interested in archaeology than ideology.. and I'm sure I didn't spell one of those words correctly...

but no more writing til it is accepted. Off to up the hill and a weekend of natural this or that.. unless my propoal is accepted. Then I will type furiously, weeping over my keyboard, as I look outside at the big mountains.. ;-)

creeping towards February..

13,175 words completed and my proposal a few sentences away from ready to send…

305 words per day.. this represents some slippage, but the numbers are getting small enough so that I’m less concerned about that then doing good analyses of the stories and novels. Once the rough draft is done that will happen anyway… a good re-reading and a crud load of analysis.

For now.. after having to do some actual work at home, I’m going to sleep..

Plenty of other amusing things going on.. but the thesis is consumed of my brainness...