fadeaccompli: (academia)
( Aug. 12th, 2024 01:10 pm)
So, I got a Latin teaching job!

Full time, at a really nice charter school in the Twin Cities. (The commute requires a transfer from train to bus, and it's rather longer than the one to Macalester was, but it's still perfectly doable.) I'm super excited about it, and likely to be--I mean, I don't post much here anyway, but even quieter for a while, on account of the tired. Especially since I had already signed up for one more semester of teaching that asynchronous online Women in Greece & Rome class as an adjunct for the fall, so I'll be juggling that along with having my first semester of teaching Actual Minors.

In my case, it'll be three sections of eighth graders (we'll be finishing up the core sequence of the Cambridge Latin course) and two of seniors (the Aeneid, for college credit, and a little Ovid at the end if we're all very lucky), so while that's five classes, it's not five different courses, more like two and a half (based on how the Cambridge stuff is divvied up). Which should help! I'll be assigned a mentor from the existing teachers to ask my plaintive questions at, there are three prep periods and a no-duty lunch... A lot of work but it's something I can do. I really believe that.

Also, I got to see my classroom! My desk is on the opposite side of the room from all the whiteboard space, so that is going to require I seriously reconsider how I run classes on a practical physical level, but there's a whole big set of windows along one wall! Looking out at vaguely green stuff! (The tops of trees from the building next door's patio area.) After teaching Latin to undergrads in windowless cramped basement rooms of the chemistry building more than once, I am delighted at the far more pleasing space I've been assigned for this. Especially since I'll be in there pretty much all day every weekday.

Anyway. It's exciting, as I said, and a great relief as well. And maybe now that my brain will be full of Latin-and-work again, instead of oppressed by the combination of summer heat and endless job hunting, I can get myself a bit more on track again with some other projects. The writing I'm doing for my next Choice of Games thing, for example. ("Choice of Games game" is probably what I should say, but it always feels odd to phrase it that way.) And turning my dissertation into a book. And that Attis article that's nearly finished and just needs the section on material culture fully fleshed out with some proper citations. And that whole article I've been wanting to write about the patterns in how young sex workers in Roman comedy express/explain their anxieties about their careers. And, yes, some fanfic I want to get back to, too.

I guess all my projects are writing projects, huh. Well. That's fine. I like words.
fadeaccompli: (determination)
( Jul. 12th, 2024 10:19 am)
Sometimes I remember that I have this account! Sometimes I come over here and look at my reading page and then feel sad about Livejournal all over again. Mostly about the heyday of when almost everyone I cared about following online lived either there or in one of the MU* hangouts I was always logged into. But then people moved to Twitter, and then Twitter died, and... so it goes, so it goes, wheel of time turning ever onward, etc.

Anyway, back to applying for jobs, trying to get writing done, grading essays, hating summer, etc. The usual.
I'm posting this here more or less to save it for posterity: it's an explanation of how to write a thesis statement for a college-level class, which I wrote up for my students elsewhere. (I know it's not exactly a life update, but... I've been very busy!)

What's a Thesis Statement? )
fadeaccompli: (determination)
( Aug. 17th, 2023 09:25 am)
Yeah I'm bad about writing updates. But anyway!

This autumn, I'm teaching two classes at Macalester College, which is very exciting. One assigned, one of my own design, but I get to come up with all the details for both myself. Exciting aaaand a bit intimidating, but I'm really looking forward to it. So:

Greek Myth! I decided to do excerpts from easily available translations for most stuff, but assign good recent Iliad & Odyssey translations from two different authors (Alexander & Wilson respectively) because I think it's useful to keep the focus off text for things not meant to be, well, text-primary. But the Iliad/Odyssey are so foundational as verbal stuff--compared to all the material culture aspects so often forgotten when teaching other myths--that it seemed like a decent breakdown.

There'll definitely be a project involving comparison between modern & ancient versions of mythology: stories, characters, symbolism, etc. Feel free to suggest any that are 1) easily available online, 2) not terribly long. (Much as I love, say, Hades-the-video-game, it's not practical for a student to play it through just for one class project.)

Ancient Comedy! This is the class I designed. We're gonna go through the four Greek & Latin comedy playwrights we have reasonably complete plays from--Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence--plus fragments of other playwrights, and bits of other types of comedy--satyr plays, mime, even some non-dramatic funny stuff like satire & invective & epigram & priapic & joke books--and talk about the shift and continuity in what's fun, what the genre expects, etc. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

There'll definitely be an assignment where students compare a staged/filmed comedy, ideally musical, to ancient ones. My current list of possibilities: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (of course), The Court Jester, any episode of Galavant (with a few specific ones suggested), any staging of Comedy Of Errors, any staging/film of The Pirates Of Penzance. (And again, suggestions welcome.)

I am also a grader for one class at UMN! Which makes for a busy schedule indeed, and was a last minute addition, but is a very welcome bit of additional work/stress, because it means I get health insurance coverage on the excellent grad student plan for one semester more. (The department's sudden TA need is my win, eh?) That's for a new faculty addition's version of Sexuality & Gender In The Ancient World, and I'm very excited about this. He's happy to have me just grade, but I intend to come to class when possible as well, and of course do all the readings.

...and on top of all that I am still editing this damn dissertation, because I can't send out a strong application to any of the next round of academic jobs (some of which have deadlines in September that I will not be able to hit, but October is still doable) until I've at least done my defense. But, you know. I'm making progress!

Anyway. Very busy. Terrible job market. The usual. Hope you're all doing well.
fadeaccompli: (determination)
( Apr. 17th, 2023 09:24 am)
I'm pretty sure my brain has a hard limit on social media locations. (Or just social... anything. I am a very outgoing introvert.) Which means that if I'm active on Mastodon and some private Slacks & Discords, I don't do much at all here. I do read! Occasionally. (Which is why I tend to comment three days after something has been posted, if it still seems worth commenting at all, that late.) But that's the way of the world.

I do miss long-form chatty writing, sometimes. Just doesn't seem as worth it with the relatively low level of engagement compared to short attention span theater zones.

Anyway, a general catch-up for people who mostly follow me here:

I've written three core chapters of my dissertation and I'm working on the fourth. After that: introduction, lots of editing and filling in bracket notes, a token conclusion 'chapter' (like, four pages saying "this is the stuff I said that I would say, and I have indeed said it"), sending it out to advisors & committee, maybe another round of rapid edits, then... the defense? Dear god the defense. Hoping to have that part happening by the end of the summer.

Things are generally okay financially at the moment. That's nice.

I might have a job for this fall, so I'm staying in Minneapolis for another year. (More details once the contract is signed; I would rather not get publicly enthusiastic about it before the obligatory bits and all that, for a variety of reasons.) No idea what I'll be doing in the spring unless some other job suddenly springs up (no pun intended), but I guess we'll see when we see.

The dog's fine. He's a good dog. The cat is remarkably fine, given she's 19 years old; she spends most of her time sleeping on her warm square (a heating pad under a throw blanket, on the couch) and the rest of the time harassing humans for packets of duck pate or her delicious prescription kibble for elderly cat kidneys.

All my fiction writing is utterly stalled, for, you know, dissertation reasons. But I'm still very enthusiastic about my next Choice of Games project, when I have time to finish the last stage of the proposal and see if they still want that project after a year's delay.

And that's it for now.
fadeaccompli: (academia)
( Nov. 15th, 2022 09:16 am)
Academic job applications remain the worst kind of lottery: a very high (time and energy) price to attempt, a very low chance of return, and the actual hoped-for return is mostly More Work, But Probably With Health Insurance.

...but, you know what? I was warned of this thoroughly before I even applied to grad school, and I knew what I was getting into. Onward, onward, into the endless stack of topic-specific statements all due today and in need of being customized for each individual job posting's requirements and implied preferences!
fadeaccompli: (determination)
( Nov. 5th, 2022 11:37 am)
I should really finish that Choice of Games pitch this weekend, and get it submitted, so that I can get that project moving along and eventually hit the stage where I can write it. I like writing interactive fiction! It's a lot of fun!

The pitch and outline stages: not so fun. Not terrible, mind. But I have a hard time pinning my ideas down that firmly at this stage. Oh well. It's good practice. And I've done it once before, so I know full well that I can wander off from the specifics (especially if I warn my editor before wandering toooo far away), I just need a baseline plan to be working from, show that there's meat on these bones.
fadeaccompli: (thrash)
( Nov. 4th, 2022 10:15 am)
I decided to grit my teeth this morning and try to sign up for Mastodon. (Not entirely as a way of procrastinating on my dissertation & job application duties, I assure you.) So far it appears to be the most annoying aspects of Discord (everything is fragmented and split into a bunch of servers you have to know about to find!) with the least fun aspects of Twitter (tiny posts! usernames & display names may vary! images everywhere! obscure rules! hard-to-find settings for any damn thing I actually want to set about my experience, if the option is there at all!), but, I don't know, maybe I'll come to like it eventually?

To be honest, the main things I want out of a Twitter replacement are 1) a handy way to casually browse lots of tiny comments from acquaintances about their current life experiences, 2) a good place to livetweet the lectures & academic books I'm experiencing myself. Everything else, well, I got Dreamdwidth for long-form posting and Slack/Discord for small locked communities of chatter with friends. So I don't know if Mastodon is gonna do me any good at all.

But I really do hope not to lose that livetweeting of cool academic things. I've met a lot of neat people and gotten a lot of interesting conversations, that way.

I miss the era of sandwich tweets.
Why do I not post to Dreamwidth if I miss Livejournal so much? I mean, it's a good question. I suppose it's mostly because so many of the people I followed on LJ moved elsewhere during the great exodus, and I never quite got into the swing of things around here. Not enough activity to keep the ADHD brain checking back repeatedly, and--

--oh, yeah, I finally got diagnosed with ADHD and got on medication. It's been a fantastic upgrade to my life, and all I need to do now is untangle decades of maladaptive coping behaviors. Should be simple!

Anyway. Uh. Let's see. A quick recap...

I'm working on my dissertation, currently titled "Social Interactions Among Slaves and Sex Workers in Plautus." Not exactly snappy, but it sums up the focus of the project. I've got nearly two chapters written, a ton of notes, and really need to be defending by June, so... wish me luck?

Also going on right now: teaching Latin as usual (new book, I'm not thrilled with it); applying for academic jobs (a constant nightmare); eyeing non-academic job options that might be worth putting into the mix; trying to figure out how to plan housing/etc. for summer and beyond next year when I have no idea where I'll be living/working in autumn of 2023; finishing up the outline for my next Choice of Games project*. So let's just say it's been rather stressful.

But... I'm happy. Yes, the world is constantly on fire (literally or otherwise). Yes, I'm juggling a thousand deadlines. Yes, I'm trying to unlearn a lot of behavior that's been ingrained for decades. Yes, academia is a broken system. But. I'm happy! I have a dog and a spouse and something that might become a career. I like my dissertation topic. I like my writing project(s). My apartment is cozy and functional. The weather in Minnesota is finally turning to the type I like (overcast and chilly). It's a good life, despite the issues, and what more could I really ask for?

I guess I could ask for a tenure-track job in a location I like, but, uh, see the whole thing about the nightmare of academic job locations. But other than that! It's good.

(* In case you missed it, my interactive fiction project with Choice of Games, Social Services of the Doomed, was released this summer. Urban fantasy with bureaucracy! It's fun! Multiple people have assured me of this, and I believe they are telling the truth!)
fadeaccompli: (determination)
( Oct. 26th, 2022 03:42 pm)
*taps the mic awkwardly*

Testing, testing...

Is this thing still on?
fadeaccompli: (determination)
( Oct. 9th, 2019 03:28 pm)
I should post here more often.

Grad school keeps me very busy. Currently trying to get book 6 of the Iliad read (in Greek) by tomorrow's class, and all of the Iliad and Odyssey (in translation) read by Friday's meeting with a prof.

Thinking about putting together a screenshot LP for some game on the Switch that isn't going to murder me if I pause and line up the angle for several seconds, since I'm told it has a good screenshot function, and, hey, I clearly need more projects, right?

Now if only I could decide on a game... I need one with enough meat to give me something to write about between screenshots, but not so much that it's sixty screenshots for every cut scene and me with nothing to say except pointing silently at the pictures. Maybe it'll come to me. Maybe I will not take on yet another project, when my previous text LPs always fizzled out.

(But I like doing LPs. It makes video games feel more communal and like I'm part of a conversation, without having to actually go to the parts of the internet which claim to be about video games, because those parts o the internet are usually terrible.)
Let's see. Where did I leave off with Octopath Traveler?

Ah, yes, the snake that sounds like a cocktail.

We continue! )
When last we left off in Octopath Traveler, I had picked up H'aanit, a hunter who likes siccing her giant cat on random pedestrians and speaks in the worst Ye Olde Fantasyye Englisch I've ever seen. Let's continue!

Also, I only recently realized, when someone else pointed it out, that the protagonist names spell out 'Octopath'. Go figure.

Apothecizing! )
I return to Octopath Traveler, and try to decide who to recruit fourth. Will it be someone really interesting, to become a mainline character? Or will I grab someone uninteresting so that they can languish outside the main party until I want to use their path ability?

Session 3 )
(From last night, when I may have stayed up a teensy bit too late again, because Tressa is awesome.)

Today, in Octopath Traveler, I try to decide if I'm able to deal with the accents in this hunting village while sober.

Session 2 )
Octopath Traveler! A game recommended by various friends, while other friends looked dubious. The basic premise seems to be that there are eight separate protagonists you get to play stories for, but they can meet up and you make a party out of three of them.

Which I like as a premise, because it means the whole game doesn't live or die for me based on a particular singular protagonist. (And let's be honest, a lot of JRPGs have terrible protagonists.) Having started watching a friends Suikoden III LP recently, in which you get to see the same world events from multiple perspectives with different protags, I am all the more jazzed about this premise lately, even if the eight storylines are, I think, pretty distinct.

So, on account of finding it amusing to do this sort of low-effort not-really-LP thing, I'm gonna try the same thing with this as I'm doing with Radiant Historia: a sort of running commentary stored here, with enough summary thrown in that it should make sense. Think of it as me live-tweeting my video game playing, except without the 'live' part or spamming everyone who follows me on Twitter.

Which is a lot more than the people who follow me on DW, but I figure at least 50% of my Twitter followers are bots or something anyway. So it evens out.

Session 1 )
I'm back in the US! I have deadlines to meet! I think I'll play a little more of this game.

Episode 3 )
.