While everything is still possibility and happiness

I have survived the gauntlet of interviews between Thanksgiving and Finals. Here is the semester's end recap.

Questions from a skype interview

He started out introducing everyone and saying we had 15-20 minutes, but in fact we spent almost a half an hour.

My current schedule

At Mom's request, but it helps me to keep track as well as well. I'll keep updating it as necessary until we finally get to Christmas.

Update on the job hunt

So here's the current stats:

• 27 jobs on my spreadsheet
• 5 are lecturer
• 22 are tenure track
• 23 applications finished
• 4 with deadlines that aren't until December or later
• 3 first interviews so far
• 1 invite to a campus interview, but I declined
• 2 waiting to hear about whether I passed that step
• 2 are schools that I had campus interviews with last year
• 6 are within about 3 hours of Albany

A bit of self indulgence

You can skip this one if you want, but Louis was making me particularly happy today.

The color of the sky

January 10, 2004 I did a little experiment: a picture of the sky once an hour all day. All the night shots I've been doing lately reminded me of it.

Yarmouth Nature Trails

I managed three job applications today.* And while some were in locations that could be cool to live, they would all take me away from Cape Cod. So I did what I prefer to do when that "I don't want to leave" mood strikes. I grabbed the dog and the camera and I went for a walk. And it was perfect fall weather. We went to the nature trails maintained by the Yarmouth Historical Society. It's the one that starts behind the Yarmouth post office on 6A. I'm sure I've been there before, but not recently enough to have remembered it.

Happy Louis having a late afternoon run.

North Road in the Conservation Lands

I took Louis for a walk this afternoon to see if there were any good autumn shots to get. And then tonight I went back to the North Road bridge over the Herring River to try some long exposure night shots. At one point a bird flew by. I couldn't see it, I could only hear it. That was a bit... disconcerting. Then just as I was carrying the tripod back to the car another car pulled up. That was even more disconcerting, though nothing happened. They parked, 2 people got out of the car, they stood on the bridge talking while I packed up and left.

Boats at night

Getting those extra shots after the moon set the other week, and then the eclipse have put me in the mood for long exposure experiments. I really like the colors.

The Eclipse

Mostly, I wish I had my tripod with me.

The crescent moon setting over Cape Cod Bay

The job hunt continues, but that's boring until something happens. So in the meantime, the moon set an hour and a half after the sun set tonight and about 10 minutes before low tide. Of course I went to Rock Harbor to take pictures.

It took a 20 second exposure (at 3200ISO) for me to realize that I hadn't made it out far enough onto the flats to get past the sea grasses.

Location Scouting Hatches Harbor

Jeff let me tag along with him yesterday when he did his field work. The man works 12-14 hour days during the field season, so it was very generous of him to add in a little extra time for me. We went to Race Point North and saw absolutely no terns at all, though sometimes that location is hopping. And then we went to Hatches Harbor where there were several hundred terns scattered around.

I had my Nikon with me so I got some photos and video, but it was neither the right camera, nor the right lens, nor the right time of day by the time we found the birds, so these images are just to give you an idea. It was good to go to get a sense of how much walking (with gear) will be involved, where and when it's likely to see the birds, and how much of a challenge it will be for me and the audience to distinguish the roseates from the other terns and even just other shore birds.

Take a look.

Learning about the roseate tern

I'm starting a new project. It will be a short documentary about the roseate tern. Unlike the common tern, which is apparently still very common, the roseate is endangered. I have a lot to learn yet, so anything I say now may be inaccurate, but here's my understanding and my thoughts at the moment.

And so it begins again

I have just completed my first application packet of the new season. Mary is kindly proof reading it for me. Carleton College - just south of Minneapolis - has an application deadline of 9/18. That seems wildly early to me. Maybe the have an adjunct they want to hire and want to keep the numbers down. Or maybe they want the kind of applicants who are paying attention and quick off the mark. Still, that's almost an entire year between application deadline and start date.

What I did on my summer vacation

Actually, I shouldn't have taken a fun day today, I have plenty of work left to prep next week's class, and an 8 hour drive on Sunday, and laundry and packing for a month away. But Jim et.al. were going on a sailboat in Provincetown and invited me along. How could I say no to that? Yolo (as the kids say).

We went to the music stroll in Harwich tonight. Tons of people, more kids under 6 than I can count, and many many dogs. Louis was loving it.

who wants more sunsets?

I was rather productive today so I rewarded myself with a trip to Rock Harbor for the hour before sunset. The tide was outbound when we arrived there was still water up to the regular beach. But if you went around the back way and waded through 4 inches of water there was a little island sand bar. Louis had no interested in 4 inches of water. "Oh my god mom don't make me get my paws wet!!!!!" (Trust me, I speak dog.) So I picked him up and carried him out there because then I could let him run all he wanted. He made lots of friends and I took lots of pictures.

What does the fox say?

You can't really google that phrase because you get that idiot song or whatever that was. I don't have any photos even though I've seen them almost daily. They are elusive and quick. But it's kind of cool having them. They don't seem to be hurting anything. They eat rabbits and squirrels and chipmunks, and all are plentiful as far as I can tell.

One passed through the yard the other week when Louis and I were sitting outside. The fox was crossing over from Jan and Joanie's house toward us and Louis went running out to the end of his lead to play. The fox was having none of that and veered across to Connie's house. Sadly for him Connie's dog was out in their front yard on the far side of the house. He barked so then the fox just took off down Depot street, fed up with all of us. So I don't leave Louis out at night by himself, but I doesn't seem like a fox is going to try to get into anything with him generally.

Tonight however they were hanging in the neighborhood. There was one very close calling so I stuck my shotgun mic out the front door. The neighbors were a bit freaked, I don't think they knew what it was. And then at one point a car came around the corner onto Smith street and stopped in front of Elizabeth's house and I could see the fox standing in front of Russel's. Then the car moved on. And then a minute later it came trotting out from our side lawn. And there's me standing in the dark on my front step really happy that Louis was inside. It came right across our yard and over into Jan and Joanie's. When it got under the street light I got a good look and it seemed bigger than the ones I've seen recently.

What does the fox say? Take a listen.
(I wish I knew how to embed that so you could listen while you read.)

Ooh, definitely a male and a female calling to each other. When I made the recording and one went through the yard it was big (15-20 pounds). But just now there was one close and I was a little worried that the neighbors might do something stupid to hurt them or chase them away. I flipped on my front light and there was a smaller one (10 pounds) right in front of the house. She ran off when Louis barked, but she hasn't left the yard. I can hear her right next to the house.

Why marriage equality is better for everyone

As I drove up to Provincetown this afternoon to join in the celebrations I thought a lot about why it matters. To me specifically, how is this possibly relevant? Because of course there is Katie and Brenda and Lori and Ellen and Arlie and Julie and really the list is too long of people I know and love for whom this has a direct and immediate impact. Those people all happen to live in states where their marriages (or potential marriages) were already legal, but it's not like they never went on vacation. Do you really want to have to keep track of which states you can visit so that if you get in a car accident you can assume you'll be granted medical decision making for your spouse? Of course you don't want to, so why should you force them to?

All of that is second hand though, isn't it? Why should I, as someone with no interest in marriage for myself, care how the rest of society defines marriage? Because when society only has one very narrowly defined - if widely conformed to - idea of what an appropriate relationship should be then everyone who doesn't fit that definition is being told their relationships are less valuable. So if marriage is only "one man and one woman for the purposes of procreation" then there are a whole lot of people who are less than ideal. The gays were so non-conformist that their relationships couldn't be legally recognized at all. But what about all the M/F couples who couldn't have/didn't want/got married too late for kids? They spent the last 11+ years listening to people make arguments that boiled down to "we'll let you get married, but until you pop out a few kids we think you're faking it."

And if the epitome of the socially acceptable relationship is children then where does that leave me? I'm never having kids. I have no interest in the kind of relationship that could lead to kids. That's not who I am. As a result none of my relationships could ever be deemed valid. I do not fit the narrow definition of what society says we should all be striving for. How sad for society. How sad and stilted and unimaginative for a community to think there can only be one way to love a person, one kind of person to love, one way to have sex. That's not a society I wanted to live in, and today because of the supreme court decision that is not a society I have to live in.

We are ALL better off when all of us are allowed to be who we are. Statistically speaking the vast majority of marriages are M/F+kid(s), and this is better for all of them as well. Because those people might conform in that way on this issue, but I do not believe there is nothing about them that makes them unique. Today uniqueness got a boost.

So I went to Provincetown to be part of the historic occasion. I knew it would be a happy place. 11 years ago this town hall was the first in the nation to issue same sex marriage licenses. I was 45 minutes away, I couldn't miss it.

Here, have some photos of the celebrations.

I just got interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education

The interview only lasted 5 minutes. The woman is doing a story on the new trend in Skype interviews for first rounds of education job hunting. Mostly she wanted to know if it went well or badly (well), if I had any technical difficulties (no), and why my opinion of it was (way better than phone).  So that was interesting.

The rest of my day, and most of this week, has been spend on the back deck alternating between working on Enid, and working through Avid tutorials on Lynda.com. I broke down and paid for a year of premium membership. If I'm going to be mostly unemployed I should use the time to become expert in all the relevant things. And I'm teaching Avid this fall at Fitchburg, so that's first up. As I tell my students, you need to know all three well enough to talk your way into a job, and then cram cram cram until you're actually as good as you need to be. I had 3 different professors cover Avid at BU and none of them were good at software instruction. So I never used it well, so I never liked it, so I used it as rarely as I could get away with, and now here we are. I'm starting at the basics even though most of what she's saying I already know just so that I'm sure I don't miss anything.

Summer has arrived

I got my feet wet in the ocean yesterday. It was rather cold.

I'm easily entertained

Louis and I were completely alone on Cold Storage Beach for tonight's sunset. It was cool with the breeze, but still it was lovely. I should savor that while I can. Soon enough we'll be overrun.

I also have been spending time lately working on Enid's Wall. I have an index card for every scene - ish. Well, that's the point of the cards. I can lay them out and see it all at once and see if anything is missing. It's easier to find gaps and rearrange scenes or take things out. So I probably don't have a card for every scene right now, but I do at least loosely have the whole story plotted out. Now I can start filling in. I had hoped to have draft 1 finished by the end of the semester, but in hindsight that was unrealistic. End of summer should be do-able though.

Anyway, have some sunset photos.

Not the news I was hoping for

I've actually known this for more than a week, but I've been keeping myself distracted from it. The final count was applications 27, first interviews 6, campus interviews 5, offers 0.

I have a plan B. They have offered me 4 classes at Fitchburg for the fall semester. 2 sections of the class I taught this semester. So that's good because the prep work is already done. Also I enjoyed the class. I think I'm going to be a better writer personally by way of teaching writing. I can constantly remind myself of all the things I'm always reminding them of. Then there's an Avid editing class. That's good because I've taught plenty of editing, but never taught Avid so that will be appealing to a certain type of school when I get around to doing applications next year. And then there's Introductory Production which is, in most fundamental ways, very similar to classes I've taught in the past. But also will be very different because they're mostly shooting film. So again, it's something I've done but never taught, and also a little bit stuff I'm going to have to learn. I've never edited film, but boy am I looking forward to learning it this summer so I can teach it this fall. I'll probably buy myself a few rolls of 16mm film and borrow their camera over the summer so I can practice shooting and editing. That will be fun.

Ghost Tours has been getting screenings. And certainly there are worse things then spending a summer on Cape Cod writing and working on films.

Here, have some more gratuitous sun and moon photos.

Gratuitous Sunsets

Tonight's sunset is brought to you by Grey's Boardwalk in Yarmouth.

A job ad came across my desk today that had some interesting things about it and some things making it a bad fit. I floated it to Karen for an opinion. Her response: Are you desperate? So I spent a lot of time today thinking about that. I mean really, these days, my mood swings from desperate to hopeful 10 times a day. But the weather was good today and I'm living in a beautiful place and I thought, if I have to be desperate I can at least savor the good things I have at the moment.

Spring = Waiting

It's been more than a month since I updated. I can tell you that at first that was because I was crazy busy - March was nuts - and then because I keep thinking I'll have News any minute now. I do not have news. At this point I don't know when I'll have news. I thought I'd recap the job hunt a bit. See if I can figure out any lessons learned in case I have to do it again or so I can give others advice.

I also have some photos at the end because the job hunt is not a happy place, but the beach certainly is.

Sunset in winter

I went up to Cold Storage Beach for a very lovely sunset last night. I wish I had Louis with me, but such is my life these days.

Snow and more snow

I was supposed to have a campus interview on Monday. My flights Sunday got canceled for weather. We rescheduled for Friday. My flights today got canceled for weather. At least I knew about it yesterday so I could come home. We've rescheduled again for after spring break. I decided to make the snow a feature not a bug in my life. I went out with my camera.

And another one

Today was a school in Texas. Considering I got in a major car crash two days ago due to the 8 foot high snow banks making it impossible to see, Texas sounds kind of nice. It was a half an hour phone interview. Apart from the fact that I don't have to dress for it the phone interview is not my preference. Skype interviews you can sort of make eye contact, you can see how they're reacting. And they can see you. I think phone interviews are worse for rambling answers. You have to just stop talking and trust that they will understand that was the end of your answer. If they can see you you've got that "I am done" look rather than the "I'm thinking about it" look.

Another day another interview

I feel like I'm getting good at this, but I do wonder how practiced one wants to become. We'll see if I can go 3 for 3 on turning first interviews into campus visits. I felt like it went well enough, but there's too much depending on things outside of my control to really know. I would like it too anyway. I didn't finish it up thinking, ugh I don't think I'd fit in there.

Winter in the Conservation Lands

When most people think of Cape Cod they think of walks on the beach at sunset, and trampolines and go-karts with the kids, swimming in the ocean, shopping, whale watches, clam chowder. In other words, they think of summer. This isn't the first winter I've spent time here, or even the first winter I've managed to photograph snow. But it is the longest winter and the most snow, so I've set myself a goal of trying to capture the spirit of the place when it is so far off season that season is barely a vague memory.

Results from UCM

I just realized that I didn't update here what happened after the phone interview with the University of Central Missouri. Last week they flew me out for a campus interview. Decent school, friendly people, in a town so small the nearest movie theater is 40 miles away. I'm back to waiting for them to respond again. It's quite possible they had an internal candidate. They were specifically looking for someone to teach cinematography and they did have an adjunct teaching that class in the past, so if he's got the qualifications (possible, but not guaranteed, I couldn't have applied for openings at GW back when I was an adjunct for them) the job really should go to him. But we'll see. I rocked the interview, so whatever happens I won't go back thinking oh I wish I'd done X or Y differently.

In the meantime I've gotten an email from another school asking for a first interview. I gave them my schedule for when I'd be available, but it's been more than a week now and I haven't heard anything else. I have nudged them once, but I don't want to be a pain. And there's a third school who had asked for additional materials so I'm waiting to see if that will turn into an interview.

Job hunting, it's all about the hurry up and wait.

teaching and hopefully more teaching

Two big things for this week: I started my class at Fitchburg, and I had an interview at the University of Central Missouri. Both went well.

Ghost Tours is done!!!

I think you all know this, but just to make it official, Ghost Tours is done. The thank you gifts for the donors have been sent, and I've started work on the festival submissions. I haven't made a post on the film's blog because I haven't actually gotten final sign off from the committee. But Charles liked it and the others are unlikely to overrule him.

Now one of my rewards is catching up on all my movie watching.