Hello again. It’s been a long time, no? Just about a week, if my math is right. Seems longer though.

I don’t exactly have the best of news. Well, it’s not necessary bad per se, but I would prefer it to be better for the near future. Remember the “Not Interested” post? Yeah, it turns out that while the professors I talked to were not interested in what I was doing, the departmental chairs were. Sort of. When I talked to them — plural, both MA and MFA — they both said they would love to have me, that I met all of my requirements (other than not being finished with my degree) but that I would still need to wait until Spring 2013 to apply. Actually… the chair of the Literature department said something slightly different in a follow-up meeting.

It turns out, as it was explained to me, that if I was interested in pursuing (the equivalent of) an English degree in the meantime, I could apply to be a graduate student and then take classes as both an undergrad and graduate at the same time towards a MA in Literature. Then, by Spring 2013, I could be upwards of 12 credit-hours into a MA program and have (the equivalent) of two degrees. I said I would think about it.

During my annual meeting time with my CS adviser, I was told that there was a job opening in the department for a grader. I asked about it. Guess what it was? Yeah, that were searching for someone who knew computers but could grade written English, specifically essays. They were recently handed down an edict to have more writing in their courses — to which, at that meeting, I did not laugh about — and now they needed someone to grade papers. Can you guess what the one requirement they were looking for was? Yeah, they wanted an English major, preferably one with some computer experience.

Can you see where this going?

After a few days of thinking about it, I decided to declare myself a double-major (Computer Science and English). The CS department then, after a few more days, hired me for next semester to be a grader. (It’s technically a ‘support job’ since I am still an undergrad. I get to look over papers — 35 a week — and recommend a grade. I can’t actually enter any grades into the system as an undergrad. I know, it’s a strange loophole.)

It looks like I will be pursuing a MA in Literature while completing a BS in Computer Science while also taking classes for (but not getting a diploma of) a BA in English. I will be done with the BS in one more semester, the BA in about a year and the MA in about two years. So, basically, I’m looking at, assuming I get through it all, two more years of being a full-time student before, if I so choose, I might be able to see about getting a Ph.D. somewhere. As I mentioned, it’s not all bad news per se.

“That’s all well and good, ” I can hear you saying, “but what does that mean for the blog then?”

It’s means this: less posts than normal for the next few weeks. See, if my life wasn’t zany enough already, I have had to increase the hours at the part-time job I have now. I have gone from about 10 hours a week to closer to 40 — as of this week, it’s 36. I didn’t expect to have to turn around, once this semester ended, and then pay for a full-time load of classes in the Spring. I haven’t been raising money for that. Now, I will have to raise most of those funds within the next month or so — less time than that now, today, actually.

Anyway, my purpose in saying all these things is not to complain about my life. I’ve done enough of that already for my own liking. No, my purpose in saying all these is to say one simple thing: hang on, readers. Please be patient. Because of the nature of my job — I’m a janitor — I don’t have access to any computers during the day. I also, because of my older cell phone, can’t do any neat web stuff either. I’m digitally isolated while I’m at work and I will be at work for most of the day nearly everyday for the next few weeks. I do still plan to write though.

I still have the List of Topics (it gets capital letters because I labeled the notepad they’re on as such) from months ago that I have been adding to a little at a time. I still have the articles and blog posts I printed out weeks ago too. I still have nearly everything I had from the last time I was updating nearly every day. I still have all that, all that is… except the time to type.

Because I don’t want to end on a sad note, I’m leaving you with some things to look over:

• Go look at this webcomic Soup Not Soup. Tell your friends. Send written missives to your enemies. Spread the word. I’ve been friends with Brian for a long time and have know Ayla for a few years now — she even did some artwork for a game prototype I worked on last year! She deserves some attention for her daily good artistry.
• Inspired by Ayla, I decided I would try to get back to creating daily. It’s one thing to ramble for a thousand words once a day, it’s something quite different to write a poem each day. I’m back to that over here.
• Consider picking up, if you are the book reading type, Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design. I really like designed books. It’s uncommon to find both interesting visuals and stories in the same book, very rare to find them in such interesting combinations. I really love what she did with it. Reminds me a little bit of House of Leaves, but with personal stories, beautiful designs and without all the creepiness.

Tomorrow. Maybe.