posterity

this is what i am currently doing in life and such:

i am working on a research project for the Violence Institute of New Jersey, under the auspices of the New Jersey State Parole Board, under a grant from someone else but i forget who right now. i'm collecting data from parolee day reporting centers. haven't actually collected any yet though, so i can't say much else about it.

i'm working for the criminal justice library (or possibly for a publisher) inputting abstracts (or possibly writing them) for the catalog. just for the money, because i was supposed to be working for the library like i did over the summer, but the budget ran out and they're required to give TA's a certain number of hours. if i work directly for the publisher apparently they pay me twice as much, so that would be nice. and i can probably work from home.

i'm also working on a research proposal to do a study of panhandlers in newark. we were going to do it this past summer but my research partner (is that the word?) got married. i'm going to try to use my research grant from last year that i never used, because the only other idea i had for that involved mass mailings, and i can't get behind that.

i'm teaching the same class i've been teaching for over a year. on policing. one night a week now, for the first time, and its going pretty well i'd say, but its only the second week. it helps to be taking a class on policing while teaching (i did that last fall too). not that i don't know the material or anything though, just its nice to talk about stuff in class with other PhD students and such before i get in the classroom, and also get some newer readings i can use. and so on.

and i'm taking three classes. two are global affairs and its strange to be in a new program now, and i still have no idea if i'm actually going to go for the degree, but if i don't then the last two weeks have been a waste (not to mention the 350 bucks or so i spent on books.) it's interesting, but on the other hand its a decent amount of work that i could simply not do. would certainly be nice to not have to deal with the commute to, so i could just take classes 4 or 5 nights. oh well, next semester maybe.

that is all.

cross the wide missouri

every six months or so i think i'm dying

(the rest of the time i think i'm going to live forever)

i don't mind long car rides but i can't be in one place for more than 12 hours.

but, yeah, like. you can't own the land, man.

we need more adventures involving rappel lines.

but what we need more of is science.

i really wanted to have a full paragraph written here. i can't even do that anymore. also i'm not sure if i still know how to play guitar or tennis. oh well.

i'm not scared


i just have no idea about anything. do you?

join the army, hippie

i think at this point i am officially a writer

because i have been working on a novel for ~3 years and have nothing of substance to show for it, but i have gone out drinking a time or two.

it could be worse. i could have one successful novel, which i could never match. that must be awful, also. also, it could be awful to have all of your novels be successful but then wonder if you even believe in them anymore, right? i really don't know much about this, i'm just going by things i heard woody allen say.

my friends all laughed at my woody allen impression, and said it wasn't like him. but then when i heard theirs' i realized that they hadn't actually ever seen or heard him, and were just basing it on a particularly mediocre episode of family guy.

today we had a new student orientation, for people who are just beginning graduate school. i and a another girl (who started when i did) both introducted ourselves as 3rd year students. then afterwards we realized that we were actually 4th year students. i lost a year in about 45 seconds there.

and then. i had class with a professor that i am on relatively friendly terms with, but no one else was (they're just babies.) and it was okay but also a bit surreal. and i'm pretty sure i've already read all of the assigned reading for the course. what what what

elvis costello is my favorite elvis.

one of my early creation myths was that i was named after elvis, but the one that i now think is the most likely is that they went with the first name in the book of names, because everyone was really busy in the 80s.

i don't think i'm gonna do much of anything.

but at least i'm not writing poetry

tomorrow i ride the train. more to follow.