20151201.0634

Work continues, of course. I am still trudging along on a freelance piece, slowed by a lingering cough as the cold I have had tries to homestead my chest. The real estate had already been claimed, but the landlord seems to be absent, and squatters are hard to fight off, indeed. Too, there is grading and more grading to do, since the stacks of papers remain in place and my students had a bit of a quiz yesterday. I am perhaps half through the latter, and grades have been good, overall, but two classes of work still remains on that assignment, and there are others I must handle.

Among them is the final exam my students will face. They elected to have an extended riddle, one they must proofread, solve, and explain their answers to. I am using the riddle as an opportunity to remain in practice in my field, as I argue in a piece I have under review at the moment; I am translating a riddle from the Exeter Book and adapting it for the purpose of the exam. It has been longer than I care to admit since I have done any kind of substantial translative work, and while I remain confident in my abilities and my access to resources, it is another task to which I must attend. There are many such, as I think I have made clear.

Another is the continuing pursuit of a permanent position. Applications for such things are coming due--they have been due, and I have been keeping up with them in large part. But, again, I have many tasks before me. Some serve to help with the applications--my work with riddles in the classroom has factored well into discussions of praxis and into interviews I have had from time to time, for example, and any research that I get done makes me look like a better candidate for professorship. Even the freelance work occasionally comes to bear; having professional writing experience makes me look more like I know what I am doing when I go up for jobs that teach writing or that require writing--which is most of the work I seek. (I know what my skills are.) It also occasionally helps when I apply for jobs that treat popular culture; I read many emergent bestsellers, and I am a nerd even yet, so I have some insight into what popular culture is telling itself that it likes. But I have to get word about such things into the right ears and before the right eyes. Finding such ears and eyes is a trick, and I am not sure I have mastered it. Getting the words right is one with which I have greater facility, but it still takes some doing.

That it does is part of why I continue to practice here, raving and occasionally posting something that is more or less lucid. (I do occasionally come back to my title. Unifying the writing helps.) The more I do, the more I become able to do--to a point. And I have to wonder when I will find that point...