Michael's CSU Stan

Graduation/Final Obstacles and Loose Ends

I have just a little over two weeks of  left until I finish my coursework and end this two year project called grad-school. Except for the fact that I can’t freaking wait, and am having trouble mustering the necessary oomph for the last few weeks, things are going fairly dandy.

For the last two weeks I’ve been scoring college placement tests for a private company, which has consumed most of my time. Seriously, I’ve rated something like 1000+ papers (not one of which have been my students…I’ve got to get back to that tonight!) in the last two weeks, and my brain feels fried. The pay’s good, though, and the last day of scoring is on Wednesday, so I’m more or less through with that ordeal.

I take my comps this Friday, which will be another “X” off the list of things to due before I graduate, and once that is done, I will have more or less finished the term. Well, not exactly–there are two end of semester projects in my grad classes, but I’m not that concerned about them. Actually, I’m not that concerned about anything school related, anymore. I’m pretty sure I’m graduating.  The only thing I am starting to worry about is finding a job.  Job or no job,  I can’t wait to be done.

Nikki Giovanni

I was not familiar with Nikki Giovanni’s work prior to sitting in on her recent reading at CSU, Stanislaus,  which, after hearing her credentials, surprised me:  author of  30-plus books,  Grammy Award nominee, world-renowned writer, poet, activist, and distinguished professor at Virginia Tech (to name a few).

Because I am largely terrible at planning, I had scheduled a conference with one of my students  right in the middle of the event, and planned only to stay for 20 or 30 minutes. But the event was slow to start due to some trouble with the microphone, so a good 10 minutes of the time I had to be there was gone before the event started. Then, about 10 minutes in, Nikki Giovanni begins with a story, and after a few minutes I was hooked, and left my student hanging,  hoping that the student simply wouldn’t show up (they sometimes didn’t).

Giovanni read two poems, but most of the time was spent telling stories, stories of her mother’s death, stories of life on Antarctica,  stories about dreaming of Deal or No Deal. They were long stories, wandering, so you’d think that the tether ball had gotten loose from the pole, but then it would swing back around, and you’d see the relationship.

I don’t remember the poems. They were brief, a few minutes at best. But I remember the humor of her stories. The insight that would be crammed next to a seemingly personal or mundane bit about death and Antarctica and Deal or No Deal. I remember the rich humor and the voice of encouragement that she offered to all in the audience, urging them to push through. I remember her advice to not avoid things that make you uncomfortable, and to always have sex with the light on because if you’re going to bother to do it, you shouldn’t pretend that you aren’t, and about taking the third offer from Howie Mandel if you are ever fortunate enough to be a contestant on Deal or No Deal.

It’s good advice.  I was glad I had the opportunity to hear it.

Family Road Trip

A few times a year, my family and I head out on a shortish road trip, usually to another family member’s house that just happens to be in a nice location. My mom’s place fits the bill–she lives in Sonoma, and it’s only a few hours from Modesto, where I live. But my in-laws have a better location–Bend OR.–and being that it’s relatively far away, we don’t see them nearly as often.  Since my wife and I both had a week off at the same time with nothing to do (ha!), we decided to head up to see her folks.

Post-Drive Jammies

The Drive

The trip took about 10 hours each way, which in the past has been fairly rough on my son, which makes it fairly rough on us. Fortunately we were able to borrow a portable DVD player and my son watched one video on the way up, and another on the way back which gave us a few hours of semi-guaranteed quiet time in the car. He also napped for a couple hours each way, so we lucked out there, too. The drive was surprisingly pleasant, and my son was in a good mood even when he wasn’t sleeping or watching a video.

Potty Breaks

I’m Breeding Next Gen Geek Squad Employees Who Get Excited About Peeing in the Grass and Fixing Computers

We stopped a lot on the way, four or five times, usually so my son could go to the bathroom. My son is new to potty training, and a few times we ended up creating a rest-area in some tall weeds on the side of the road, something that thrilled him more than actually using a toilet. He didn’t have any accidents on the way, though there was one particularly close call that I will politely refrain from sharing. Okay, I’ll just say this–Taco Bell bean burrito: He ate one; you can figure the rest out.

Me an’ Eli

Bend

Bend is a nice town. 80k people, high-desert, which is a blend of desert shrubs and evergreens, with the Deschutes river running right through the middle of the town. I spent most of my time studying for my comps, but I managed to go out for a few hours each day, eat a buffalo burrito, fish with my son, and drink some local beer that was super hoppy and smelled like flowers. Good beer. Good trip.

The Death of a Saturday:

This weekend got off to a slow start productivity wise. My wife finally had me cornered long enough over Saturday morning coffee to remind me of an ongoing problem with her car, so that ate up the first bit of the morning on Saturday. Now, before you think that I am a handy guy, let me tell you that what was wrong with the car was simply a clip breaking on the under-carriage, which resulted in the occasional (okay, constant) dragging of plastic while driving. I fixed the problem, but the tools involved were wire cutters, two pocket knives, and a metal clothes hangar. Handy? Not really, but I fixed the problem. But as things seem to go, one problem was followed up with another problem.

After “fixing” my wife’s car, I was ready for a day of tax preparation and paper grading.  But when I sat down at my desk to start the taxes (resume, actually, because they ate a good chunk of my last Saturday as well), my computer monitor wouldn’t display video. The monitor is an older CRT, so I figured I just needed a new one, which wouldn’t be a big deal. I found a replacement (also a CRT) for $10 on Craigslist, and picked it up within a couple hours. Only problem, when I tried hooking the monitor up, there was still no picture, which meant that the video card  had given out and would need to be replaced. This was a bigger problem, mainly because it’s an older computer, and I didn’t want to spend much money to have the part replaced, so I couldn’t just run out to Best Buy and pick something up. I ordered a replacement on amazon for $30.00 (told you it was an old computer), and should get the card on the 22nd. But, all that running around and figuring-out killed my Saturday, and other than a cleaned off desk, I ended up with a fairly dead Saturday.

The Semi-Productive Sunday:

Sunday was a better day. I still lost some time  Sunday because I volunteer with the toddlers at my church one Sunday a month, or, more accurately, my wife is in charge of arranging volunteers for childcare at our church, and she has enlisted me to serve alongside her once a month. Still, even with the morning filled, I managed a productive afternoon. I graded half a stack of papers, and finally started to go through more of the boxes from my Nerd Garage Sale find. I hit a few stacks of water damaged stuff, which made it in my boxes simply because of the speed at which I was filling them at the sale. I hate mold, though. It makes me physically sick ,and I ended up having to chuck a few dozen mold-damaged comics and magazines. I pulled a lot of cool stuff, though. There were instruction manuals for the Commodore 64, A Ghost in a Shell laser disc, stacks of RPG manuals and scenario books, lots of old video game magazines from the early 90s, a Japanese Jungle Pokemon booster, and even a cool M:TG promo pack from Portal. I’ve never seen it before, but it looks like it was a magazine insert that demonstrated the game for two players. From what I can tell, the sealed pack is worth only about $20, but it’s still a cool find, because I still play Magic occasionally, and like to be able to have the older stuff pass through my hands from time to time, that way I get the pleasure of owning it, but also get to let it go after that initial cool factor has worn off. Being a dealer sort of gives you the perks of being a collector without all the hits to your wallet. The hits to your garage are still sizable though. The six boxes I cleared barely made a dent.

School Stuff

As of today, I am about half way through my last semester of graduate school. In the back of my mind there is always that nagging feeling of possible failure. And, technically, it is possible. I could fail my comprehensive exams; I could fail a course I need; I could suddenly and inexplicably become a compulsive gambler who opts to go to the card room instead of class (I’ve never done this, I swear!). But, the thing is, it’s very doubtful any of that would happen. I generally don’t miss class. I am too conservative with my money to do wild gambles. I am, for the most part, prepared for my comprehensive exams, and I’ve had only A’s/A-’s the whole time I’ve been in the program. What I’m getting at, I guess, is that I’m more or less done, and as long as I keep moving like I have been while in the program, all of my stress and worry is over nothing.

Job Stuff

As of today, I’m caught up in my classroom. I get a new batch of papers today, though, so that will set me behind again. I generally need a one week turn around on papers, and sometimes I take two weeks on lower-stakes assignments. They still take too much time overall, but it is manageable, and I have caught the rhythm of the semester and been able to ride it fairly well. No major bucking or injuries, and I feel I’ve been doing a good job with the course.

Home Stuff

My son was given the gift of stomach flu by one of his little playmates, so we spent Sunday lounging around the house, watching videos,  and attending to the occasional bouts of vomit and diarrhea  With the exception of my son’s frequent and sudden uncontrollable loss of fluids, it was actually a great way to spend a Sunday.

Top Five Things  I Wished I’d Done In Grad School

Alexia’s recent list of the top  movies and songs from the 80′s inspired me to do a list of a different sort  to help prospective or current  graduate students.

Conferencing

A big part of what you are doing in graduate school is building your academic resume (CV). Conferencing isn’t required, but professors (or would be professors) are expected to both research within the discipline and present that research in conference. This is more or less a glaring omission from my CV that I put off because of my own personal hang ups with crowds and public speaking.

Applying for a Graduate Assistantship Award

The Center for Excellence in Graduate Education offers a competitive grant for individuals to perform research with a sponsoring professor. It is fairly competitive, with only about 1/3 to 1/2 of applicants receiving the award. It’s another thing I wish I’d applied for, although I’m not really sure how I would have managed it with my other responsibilities.

Written a Thesis

One of the reasons I went to graduate school is because I thought I would have to write a thesis. Sounds strange, I know, but I wanted the mandate so I would be forced to set aside the time to write. Only problem, RTW doesn’t require a thesis, and there is no way I can make myself do something extra just for the heck of it. I simply don’t have the time. Still, it’s something I wish I had to my credit when finishing school.

Stayed Longer

Come May, I will have finished the program in two years. If I would have opted for three years (which was actually my original plan), I would have likely been able to teach more classes, enter more contests, apply for a Graduate Assistantship, conference, etc. Two years isn’t that long. Not really, and my first year was spent simply getting accustomed to the discipline and understanding what exactly you are actually supposed to do in  graduate school. If I had another year, I could do more of those things that actually count toward finding a job. And, technically, I could stay another year, but I’m not really at a point in my life where I can just work another  year (largely for free or at an expense) to build a resume. Which brings me to my final point.

Gone Earlier

Perhaps my biggest regret is simply being so damn old–at least by student standards. Off hand, I’d say about 80 percent of my cohort  are in their early or mid 20s. I’m 32. Those six or seven years might not seem like much, but a lot happens in six or seven years. Houses happen, spouses happen, kids happen. Many (though not all) of the other students aren’t married, don’t have kids, and have lives much more conducive to graduate study and the lack of resources such study is usually synonymous with.  Don’t get me wrong–I’m glad I went, but I should have gone earlier.

Update

So, I requested two professors for my Comp committee, and they both accepted. Granted, I don’t think they have tons of choice in the matter, but they accepted nonetheless. I don’t have a date set yet, but I will likely shoot for the first week of May. I am going to be doing a round of test-scoring online for a company mid May for a week or two, so I will be too busy mid May, and I don’t think I can finish all of the texts any earlier than early May. Maybe I’m wrong and would actually be fully prepped by April, but it is a bit of a stretch, and I don’t really want to risk it.

I’m down to seven texts from the official list:

James Kinneavy A Theory of Discourse

Aristotle On Rhetoric (1991 Kennedy translation)

Kenneth Burke A Rhetoric of Motives

Ellen Cushman, et. al. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook

Helen Fox Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing

Michelle Sidler, et. al. Computers in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook

Lester Faigley Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition

That’s still half the list, so I still have a ton to do. I’m really having to push beyond what is comfortable to do this, and it’s not very pleasant. 14 more weeks… It’s basically taken over my life. With only six units a semester, I didn’t feel this way, but with more than that, plus teaching a class, plus comps, plus all the other  random little jobs I have, plus a family. I basically have no life. Not that I did much with  my life before grad school, but I sure do love having that luxury.  14 weeks–that’s about 100 days, which I’d like to point out is more than twice as bad as getting stuck on an ark.