Progress

Yeah, I don't have the chops to stick with this. Although, I have been writing more, just in a different forum. Since I'm planning on one day making my living as a historian by writing, one would think I would want to express my thoughts more. Or not, you know, TV is on.

So, I'm making progress towards starting this new job. Its probably the most I've had to do in a two week period in years. I have to get ready for my TA job. I have to make some sort of progress on the book. Finally, I have to prepare a syllabus, and schedule, and lectures, for this class at the end of the month. It turns out its extremely time consuming to prepare a lecture. No wonder professors use the same material over and over again for years on end.

Though ask me about the rise of Athens today before the Persian wars and maybe I can tell you something worth listening to.

I have also forgotten how expensive it is to start a new job. Trips to the campus for HR work that are non-reimbursed. New shoes to wear with my old sports coats. I mean, most of my authority comes from my jacket. Its just the way it is. Of course, I had to buy a couple of new shirts too since its not really a good idea to roll in with a Recent Abduction t-shirt on. Expensive fingerprinting to make sure I'm not a criminal is up there as well.

I understand the theory behind the fingerprinting; although I disagree with it so fundamentally its not really worth discussing. Are we ever going to reach a point as a society where we say "wow, I'm pretty safe. I'll go ahead and take it from here?" I doubt it. There is a quote that is probably apocryphal about either having safety or having liberty. I'm pretty sure you can't have both. I get that on a day to day basis I don't really use the liberty that much, and that I probably take the safety for granted; but on the other hand, have you seen the news lately?

Every day the news is one story after another about the things I can't do anymore. I was pretty sure when I was a kid they told me that in this place I was innocent until proven guilty by a jury of my peers. I probably should have been suspicious since the peers of children don't sit on juries, but I digress. Well, I'll tell you what, if you pass enough laws about prevention, then the innocence becomes kind of a moot point. You're not guilty of a real crime against another person, you're simply guilty of considering the crime. Thats conspiracy to commit. I didn't crash my car because I was going too fast, but I'm guilty of going too fast. Its all for safety right? I mean, I can't carry a knife because of what people could do with a knife.

Anyway, I'm not trying to carry a knife. But it irks me a bit that I can't. It irks me a bit that my judgment and character are constantly being called into question not for things I did, but for things someone in my position could potentially do. To make a long story short, the air itself starts to feel a bit heavy on the head. Is this the place that I tell the kids about? Or is it some place that long ago gave up any pretense that being a citizen meant something. Rome did that once, and all that happened was a lot of slaughtered citizens at the hands of the government there to protect them. There's your history lesson. Class dismissed. - S

New Job

So, I got a new job. Or a new second job. I'll be teaching an accelerated Western Civ class at a somewhat local community college at the end of the month. Its a big step career wise as it gives me solo classroom experience at the college level, and it should pay alright. It was pretty obvious during the interview that the prof who did the hiring was giving me and my lack of experience a break with this job. So its appreciated. Now, I just have to prepare 16 3-hour lectures on Western Civ in the next month. You know, its one of those things that I've seen done a bunch of times, but I haven't actually done myself. We'll see how it goes. At the very least, it should help with the summertime money woes. - S