Little Rock, Arkansas; Airport.
It would have cost $500 dollars to get a flight a day later to Baltimore on Southwest. Funny. Southwest just paid ME nearly $300 to take a flight 4 hours later because they overbooked my original flight. If I am bumped again, I may very well get to fly a day later anyway, get a free hotel, and another flight voucher. That is unlikely, but at least I got $300 toward another ticket.
Though my original plans fell through, something has finally gone my way. A former colleague of mine who will be at the APA meeting in Baltimore has offered to let me share her room with her. I just found this out. So, it seems that I will not have to sleep in the airport tonight, as my anticipated hotel costs were just drastically diminished. Happy day.
I saw Matt Dunn's doppelganger in this airport. It was scary. I wish I had my camera on me. This is moment #3 in which I have wished I had a camera phone. Matt, this dude totally looked like you. You need to hunt him down. There can be only one.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Down to The Wire
Tomorrow I leave for Baltimore. This is it. If things go well, then by this time next year I will be far from Indiana. If things don't go well, then hopefully I will still be far from Indiana. We'll see. Mostly I am just sad that tomorrow morning will mark the beginning of 4-5 months without Sebastian. It is killing me; it is probably thrilling him. I wish he had been a bastard during all this shuffling around from place to place, but he's been so well-behaved, and especially mindful and tender. He's just doing it to torture me, I'm sure. I shouldn't have taken the spots in Tilburg and Amsterdam. I'm leaving too much behind. But on the other hand, it is unlikely that I'd finish the dissertation in a timely manner if I were stuck in Bloomington.
Christmas produced a bountiful haul of DVDs, books, cds, dolla' bills, and a handheld gps system to keep me from getting lost in europe.
I still don't have housing arrangements in Baltimore. The person with whom I was supposed to stay backed out at the last moment, leaving me up the creek. I really do not want to have to fork out 120 a night to stay in the hotel reserved by the APA. I would not have gone a day early had I known that the prior arrangement would be revoked. I think I might try to camp out in the airport to save some cash.
NB: If you promise to host someone 4 months in advance, and something happens (even something terrible, as the case may be), and you give only a week's notice to the person, you have, it seems to me, an obligation to help the person find other arrangements. It is just wrong to leave the person high and dry. I say this because I once believed it to be common sense, but apparently my would-be host does not find it so.
Christmas produced a bountiful haul of DVDs, books, cds, dolla' bills, and a handheld gps system to keep me from getting lost in europe.
I still don't have housing arrangements in Baltimore. The person with whom I was supposed to stay backed out at the last moment, leaving me up the creek. I really do not want to have to fork out 120 a night to stay in the hotel reserved by the APA. I would not have gone a day early had I known that the prior arrangement would be revoked. I think I might try to camp out in the airport to save some cash.
NB: If you promise to host someone 4 months in advance, and something happens (even something terrible, as the case may be), and you give only a week's notice to the person, you have, it seems to me, an obligation to help the person find other arrangements. It is just wrong to leave the person high and dry. I say this because I once believed it to be common sense, but apparently my would-be host does not find it so.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
In preparation for departure (not a job post)...
OK, so FINE, I've decided that I will miss Bloomington. I've seen almost everyone that I need to see before leaving (Hollingsworth, ahem). Tonight while packing up my place it finally hit me that I'd be gone for 4 months, and it seemed that things were just starting to get good again.
Packing has been a real bitch. I'm so grateful that Matt and Grant have allowed me to store my stuff at their place, but if I have to make that trek across town again with a carload of stuff, I am going to scoopy my own eyes out. I hate the Grand Marquis, but one thing it has going for it is ample trunk space and an expansive back seat. I can't imagine having to do this with my Altima (RIP). It'll be awesome driving 14 hours to Florida while the vehicle's gluttonous gas consumption slowly starting eating away at my dining budget for the first week in Amsterdam.
Matt and Grant leave tomorrow, so today was a whirlwind of moving ass-painery. I'm not sure that I should make just one more trip tomorrow morning, as I'm uncertain that I will be able to fit the items left in my apartment into my car. Many possessions have met their end in the neighboring apartment complex's dumpster for the simple reason that I didn't feel like moving them. However, I'm not sure I want to toss one of my lamps or my desk chair, neither of which made it over today. Also, the guitar on which most of the Grandpa's Man songs were recorded is threatened to end up in the heap if I don't take it over tomorrow morning. It is not a fancy guitar (far from it), but it is legendary. No other guitar I've owned has kept the same strings on it for 8 years. It sounds completely dead, completely Grandpa.
My back is killing me, I got 3.5 hours of sleep last night, and I wore shoes soaked through (because of the snow) all day.
Go see "No Country for Old Men."
Packing has been a real bitch. I'm so grateful that Matt and Grant have allowed me to store my stuff at their place, but if I have to make that trek across town again with a carload of stuff, I am going to scoopy my own eyes out. I hate the Grand Marquis, but one thing it has going for it is ample trunk space and an expansive back seat. I can't imagine having to do this with my Altima (RIP). It'll be awesome driving 14 hours to Florida while the vehicle's gluttonous gas consumption slowly starting eating away at my dining budget for the first week in Amsterdam.
Matt and Grant leave tomorrow, so today was a whirlwind of moving ass-painery. I'm not sure that I should make just one more trip tomorrow morning, as I'm uncertain that I will be able to fit the items left in my apartment into my car. Many possessions have met their end in the neighboring apartment complex's dumpster for the simple reason that I didn't feel like moving them. However, I'm not sure I want to toss one of my lamps or my desk chair, neither of which made it over today. Also, the guitar on which most of the Grandpa's Man songs were recorded is threatened to end up in the heap if I don't take it over tomorrow morning. It is not a fancy guitar (far from it), but it is legendary. No other guitar I've owned has kept the same strings on it for 8 years. It sounds completely dead, completely Grandpa.
My back is killing me, I got 3.5 hours of sleep last night, and I wore shoes soaked through (because of the snow) all day.
Go see "No Country for Old Men."
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Parents Eat this Crap Up
Tonight while googling myself, I found this abstract of the talk I gave in the Netherlands in November. A mighty fine talk, if I do say so myself. Great audience, good questions, lots of beer afterward.
I also found this page which contains an excerpt from my review of a book. If you click on 'more endorsements', you'll see that my review beat Ted Porter's. (NB: the typo in the quotation of my review is not mine)
And here I pop up trying to lay some smack down. I didn't reread my post since I'm sure that now I don't agree with what I said back then. Since I posted this, I am not that surprised that it is on the web somewhere, but I didn't expect it to come up in a search.
Of course, I'm still a nobody, but it is cool to find serendipitously stuff about yourself posted on this here interweb. The mere fact that I find it cool tells you how insignificant I am. But one day, oh one day, I will be an internet movie star...wait, that doesn't sound so good, or does it?
I also found this page which contains an excerpt from my review of a book. If you click on 'more endorsements', you'll see that my review beat Ted Porter's. (NB: the typo in the quotation of my review is not mine)
And here I pop up trying to lay some smack down. I didn't reread my post since I'm sure that now I don't agree with what I said back then. Since I posted this, I am not that surprised that it is on the web somewhere, but I didn't expect it to come up in a search.
Of course, I'm still a nobody, but it is cool to find serendipitously stuff about yourself posted on this here interweb. The mere fact that I find it cool tells you how insignificant I am. But one day, oh one day, I will be an internet movie star...wait, that doesn't sound so good, or does it?
And all this time I thought the Devil was on my side.
That's right, you guessed it, Duke has turned its back on me. Coach K, we were so close to realizing our dream of forming an unstoppable, platonic basketball coaching deadly force.
Northwestern, I'll miss you dearly. You are a beacon of hope amid the tyranny that is the city of Chicago's ban on foie gras. I had imagined evenings in Evanston dining on succulent seared foie gras with a 25 year balsamic vineger as I peered at the Chicago skyline pittying the poor souls who allow their city government to legislate morality and diet. This ban on what is nothing short of artistry, is cenorship.
Siena, you are a small Jesuit college in upstate New York. No hard feelings.
UNC, I thought for sure that you and Duke would, for the mere sake of rivalry, fight over me. It seems that the only rivalry going on in this area is who can reject me faster. Sadly, the tar heels take it.
Wisconsin, it is very cold where you are, and your rejection has, I'm sure, a Sobering effect.
NYU, I'm out of your league. (implied by 'x is out of y's league if and only if y is out of x's league')
So, it is a race to see who will be next. Will it be the Jersey boys from New Brunswick? Those beautiful belles from Charleston? Perhaps it will be the liberal artists from Carleton (also cold there). The Buckeyes are looking strong this season as are the fighting Irish. The scene in Seattle still has not died, and Davis may yet call. And we can't discount o' fair New Mexico or [getting lazy] Southern California.
That leaves 9.
UPDATE: Buckeyes just came in! Thanks for the implicit rejection!
That leaves 8.
UPDATE: I apparently forgot that I also applied to Bryn Mawr, Princeton, and UCLA. Also, New Mexico has scheduled on-site interviews, so I can mark them off my list.
That leaves 10.
Northwestern, I'll miss you dearly. You are a beacon of hope amid the tyranny that is the city of Chicago's ban on foie gras. I had imagined evenings in Evanston dining on succulent seared foie gras with a 25 year balsamic vineger as I peered at the Chicago skyline pittying the poor souls who allow their city government to legislate morality and diet. This ban on what is nothing short of artistry, is cenorship.
Siena, you are a small Jesuit college in upstate New York. No hard feelings.
UNC, I thought for sure that you and Duke would, for the mere sake of rivalry, fight over me. It seems that the only rivalry going on in this area is who can reject me faster. Sadly, the tar heels take it.
Wisconsin, it is very cold where you are, and your rejection has, I'm sure, a Sobering effect.
NYU, I'm out of your league. (implied by 'x is out of y's league if and only if y is out of x's league')
So, it is a race to see who will be next. Will it be the Jersey boys from New Brunswick? Those beautiful belles from Charleston? Perhaps it will be the liberal artists from Carleton (also cold there). The Buckeyes are looking strong this season as are the fighting Irish. The scene in Seattle still has not died, and Davis may yet call. And we can't discount o' fair New Mexico or [getting lazy] Southern California.
That leaves 9.
UPDATE: Buckeyes just came in! Thanks for the implicit rejection!
That leaves 8.
UPDATE: I apparently forgot that I also applied to Bryn Mawr, Princeton, and UCLA. Also, New Mexico has scheduled on-site interviews, so I can mark them off my list.
That leaves 10.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
You can't build a fence around the soul of a man.
I don't know what that means, but it was in a great movie I saw last night entitled "Henry Fool." It is a very quotable movie and I recommend it to all (except my mother who hates every movie I like, even "Little Miss Sunshine").
So, here's the most recent in job news. I applied to 29 schools. Here are those who have set up interviews (with others) already (meaning they have no love for me):
Wells College
Tilburg University
Rice University
Yeshiva University
University of Connecticut
This leave the following schools:
Princeton, Rutgers, NYU, Cornell, UNC, Duke, U of South Carolina, U of Western Ontario, Cal State, Carleton College, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Siena College, Syracuse University, UC Davis, UCLA, U of Washington, Washington U, Virginia Tech, U of Southern California, U of Wisconsin, and U of New Mexico.
The first 6 of these schools are almost certain to reject me, especially if I couldn't even get an interview with Yeshiva (though not being Jewish might have hurt me there, who knows) or Wells, neither of which have a philosophy department that approaches the caliber of those 6 institutions. I'd say my chances are also pretty slim at UCLA, Northwestern, and Wisconsin. It would be totally awesome if I had to do this all over again next year. Part of the problem is that this year there were very few philosophy of science jobs, and what jobs there were, tended to be at very strong departments (i.e., not for the entry-level candidate such as myself).
So, here's the most recent in job news. I applied to 29 schools. Here are those who have set up interviews (with others) already (meaning they have no love for me):
Wells College
Tilburg University
Rice University
Yeshiva University
University of Connecticut
This leave the following schools:
Princeton, Rutgers, NYU, Cornell, UNC, Duke, U of South Carolina, U of Western Ontario, Cal State, Carleton College, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Siena College, Syracuse University, UC Davis, UCLA, U of Washington, Washington U, Virginia Tech, U of Southern California, U of Wisconsin, and U of New Mexico.
The first 6 of these schools are almost certain to reject me, especially if I couldn't even get an interview with Yeshiva (though not being Jewish might have hurt me there, who knows) or Wells, neither of which have a philosophy department that approaches the caliber of those 6 institutions. I'd say my chances are also pretty slim at UCLA, Northwestern, and Wisconsin. It would be totally awesome if I had to do this all over again next year. Part of the problem is that this year there were very few philosophy of science jobs, and what jobs there were, tended to be at very strong departments (i.e., not for the entry-level candidate such as myself).
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