End of May Update

It’s been two weeks since my last post, and I’ve been wanting to write the whole time. Between teaching and having a newborn, however, it’s tough to find the time. I’ve been wanting to write about some of the books I’ve read lately, both good and very mediocre, and after seeing it for the first time tonight, I am very eager to write about the catastrophe that is the film Happy Feet. Alas, I will have to wait on these things because, rather than writing a lengthy post, I should be sleeping. Rare is the morning that part of me isn’t ready to burst into tears at the thought of getting up.

Instead of getting into something very detailed, I will just say that life is on the whole going quite well. It’s hard to fathom that in two-and-a-half months, I’ll be living in Tallahassee. And for a minimum of four years! Seriously, that’s mind blowing. And stressful. But I whine about my stresses all too often, so let me eschew that for the time being.

The other day, I had a student, Maximilian*, who planned on meeting with me. I was waiting in my “office” in the philosophy department, and while I waited, I was looking up information about Tallahassee online. I thought to myself, “You should ask Maximilian if he’s ever been to Tallahassee. On the off chance that he has been, maybe he can tell you something about it.” Well, I didn’t ask Maximilian about Tallahassee, but he happened to ask if I was about to start my Ph.D. program. I told him I was going to start my Ph.D. program in the fall at Florida State University. So Maximilian says, “Oh really? I lived in Tallahassee for 9 years**!” I told Maximilian I wouldn’t mind bothering him with questions about Tallahassee at some point, and he was very receptive of that. He even offered to draw*** me a map of Tallahassee and go over it with me sometime. Pretty cool, eh?

By Tuesday, final exams for Junemester**** will be over. I hope I can write less***** frequently at that time, but really I should be working on my Lexus******. We’ll smell*******.

* Name has been changed to protect the student’s anonymity (and perhaps anatomy). Speaking of which, why don’t they ever use fun names like Maximilian when they change names to protect a person’s identity? Why say something boring like Bob?

**Number of years has been changed to protect the student’s anonymity. The actual number of years he lived in Tallahassee is 10.

***Verb has been changed to protect the student’s anonymity. He really said he would give me a map. He has no plans to draw it himself.

****Name of semester has been changed to protect the anonymity of all of my students. It’s really called Maymester.

*****Adverb has been changed to protect my antipathy. I really meant “more.”

******Noun has been changed to protect my animosity. I’m really talking about my master’s thesis.

*******Verb has been changed to protect my continuity. I really meant “see.”

Potpourri No. 21 – AKA The Right Stuff

There are many reasons to rejoice this week. Here are some of them.

• Things are going well with Peter. Overall, he seems to be a pretty calm kid. That’s good. And Eddie’s handling him better than I expected. He seems to have genuine affection for his new little brother, which is wonderful.
• My niece finally had her baby girl. Congrats!
• Melanie’s parents have been staying with us since last Saturday. In addition to seeing their new grandson, they have been doing tremendous things to help us out. And Eddie’s really enjoyed having them around, too. It’ll be sad when they leave us (just 15 hours from now).
• Two of Melanie’s brothers also visited us this week, including her brother who recently had a baby of his own. (His wife and brand new daughter were also here, so we’ve been really spoiled with seeing family.)
• Speaking of family, I’ve received a couple of nice checks from Uncle Sam this week. Those will come in very handy. Thanks, Uncle!
• I’ve had a huge weight taken off my shoulders when it comes to writing my thesis. For the past several months, I’ve been planning on graduating from Georgia State in August. In order to do this, I would have to meet a series of deadlines that correspond to various stages of thesis completion. The first big deadline was May 15^th. I was not prepared for this deadline. However, I did some research and found out that, even if I don’t officially graduate this summer, I can start school at Florida State in August without any problems. So, instead of aiming for an August graduation date from Georgia State, I am going to receive my degree in December. This won’t matter much, because I’ll still finish my thesis and defend it by mid-August, so it will be out of the way before I ever get to FSU. It’s just that I won’t have to meet the summer graduation deadlines. This makes things just a tad less stressful!
• I started teaching what has been dubbed “Maymester” at Georgia State University. Similar mini-semesters also exist at other schools, but I’ve never heard the “Maymester” term before going to GSU. Anyway, it’s one of those intensive, three-and-a-half-week courses that allows motivated students to cruise through a class at super-speed and be done with it in just over one-fourth of the time (week-wise) it takes to complete a course during a normal semester. So, why rejoice? Well, I just finished teaching my first week of it, and to be quite honest, it hasn’t been that bad at all. It actually feels very stress-free at the moment. I think it doesn’t feel that bad because last semester, I taught three classes in a row, and so this is actually less time teaching per day and I have significantly less students to deal with. In fact, because it’s an intensive course, I think I have a higher percentage of highly-motivated students than would be expected during a normal semester. So it’s working out nicely, and even though I feel like I’ve just started doing it, I’m already a third of the way done with the semester! I only have to go 11 more times, and three of those times I will not be lecturing. (For example, this Monday is the midterm. The midterm!) Now that I’m not so worried about cramming my thesis on top of my teaching responsibilities, I feel quite giddy about teaching. It’s a good way to earn some quick cash for the rest of the summer, when I will be drowning in thesis work.
• I heard the new New Kids on the Block single the other day. Okay, I admit, this isn’t something to rejoice about, but it was somewhat amusing to hear it and that put me in a good mood. The song itself is only modestly catchy, and the lyrics are pretty bad. I’m not convinced that the NKOTB reunion is somehow bettering our world, but I would have wanted to hear their new stuff at some point, just out of morbid curiosity. So at least I’ve accomplished that small task.

Family of Four

Peter joined the family on Friday, May 2nd at 2:44 p.m. Melanie was originally scheduled for an induction today, Monday, May 5th (we’ve always dreamed of a Cinco de Mayo baby*), but her ripe little (or should I say, not so little!) cervix just couldn’t wait. Just like with Eddie, Melanie’s birth canal was rearing to go and it was questionable whether we’d even make it to the scheduled induction. Unlike with Eddie, we didn’t make it after all.

So, now I’m officially the father in a family of four. What the pfargtl?!? Even though I don’t feel too much in shock (yet) with Peter here, saying things like “family of four” and “I have two kids” and “my children / sons / boys” makes my brain stumble a bit. I can’t believe those phrases have application in my life. It’s bizarre!

The chances of me writing very frequently now that Peter’s on the scene are next to nil (at least for a while), but perhaps I’ll be able to drop brief lines or post a picture here and there. Speaking of which, here is a picture of my family …


Could I be any more blessed? I’m one happy man!

*Yes, I was being sarcastic about Cinco de Mayo

I'm Ready for Those Flowers

They say that April showers bring May flowers, which I’m hoping is true because I’ve certainly been rained on during the last month (both literally and figuratively—it’s been a wet month here in Atlanta). Among the figurative torrents have been a deluge of student papers in need of grading, numerous hours spent on a master’s thesis that seems to be going nowhere fast, a final paper for a seminar on ancient ethical theories that needs more revision than I wish it did, and a wife whose latest hobby is making me think she’s going into labor.

Whew!

I know the May flowers won’t be starting too quickly. Everything I’ve just mentioned has yet to be fully resolved. I’ve still got a handful of papers to grade. I still have to write a complete draft of a master’s thesis in just over two weeks (and it seriously isn’t very far along the way yet—can you say, “impossible”?). I still have to rework my ancient ethical paper (by Monday!). And, speaking of Mondays, unless something crazy happens between now and then, Melanie and I are already scheduled to go to the hospital and make this baby boy show his face. But, by May 16^th, I hope to start feeling a little more sane. Granted, I’ll be adjusting to fatherhood part deux, and I’ll start teaching an intensive summer course on May 12^th, but once the 16^th gets here, I won’t have any super pressing deadlines. Perhaps that will make life feel a little bit calmer.

Sheesh, who am I kidding? As I write this, I feel like a big fat liar! Good thing I’m writing this post without my pants on, because something tells me they’d be uncomfortably warm!

So, that’s life at the moment. I’m glad to be nearly done with grading papers because I find myself literally getting angry as I grade them. I get angry because so many students do such idiotic things and can’t follow directions to save their lives. Sometimes I want to give them all zeros and say, “You friggin’ moron, you can’t get away with this crap in college! Don’t spend two minutes writing an essay and expect a decent grade!” But instead I have to insert comments like, “Gee, I’m sorry to say that this appears to be slightly off the mark though you’re definitely making a very good point.” This is teacher code for, “Huh?!?!? Have you ever read or even spoken an intelligible sentence in your life??? If you walked around talking like this, you’d be thrown into a mental hospital! What you just said is total gibberish! Let me spell it out for you in a way that you can understand: J-I-B-R-I-S-H!”

To tell you the truth, I didn’t know where I was going with this post when I started writing it. That’s probably not much of a surprise now that you’ve read it. Oh well. I just needed a little venting time.

On a lighter note, go rent the movie Lars and the Real Girl. I watched it last night and it’s a winner. Don’t be too quick to judge it by its plot. If you don’t know what it’s about, maybe that’s for the better. Just rent it and start watching it and don’t turn it off even if you think it initially seems a bit askew.

See you next year, April.

A Seminal (Seminole?) Post

As the six of you who read this blog know, I’ve been accepted into the Ph.D. program in philosophy at Florida State University. For those of you who were a little confused by the last post, if you had clicked the words “It’s official” that ended the post, it would have taken you to the FSU philosophy department webpage. Anyway, it’s an exciting offer, it comes with a tuition waiver, a better stipend than I’m receiving now, and paid health insurance. I’m pleased, though I still have to ask Melanie if it’s for real. I’ve spent the last several years of my life wondering what school I’d end up at for my Ph.D., avidly researching my options, and it’s just a bit unreal to think all of that wondering and planning is over and done. (See, for example, my very first post on this blog, written in September 2004.) But now I know it’s FSU. That’s it. That’s what it will always be. Another significant chunk of my life history just got unveiled, and it’s weird that it’s no longer a mystery.

Tallahassee, Florida

There are, of course, pros and cons associated with going to Florida State. I seem to be in the habit of telling people the cons, which probably makes me seem unexcited or unappreciative. That is not the case at all. It’s just that I’ve been thinking about some schools quite heavily for over a year, and even more so within the last few months since I’ve officially applied out. Most of my friends and family knew I had my fingers crossed for University of California-Riverside, so most of the downsides of FSU are only downsides relative to UCR. I’ll start with the cons and finish with the pros, thereby hoping to end on a positive note. Here goes.

Westcott Building, courtesy of Florida State University

The Cons

1. Climate. I’ll still be living in the South, which is not something I’m in love with. I admit, I don’t miss the harsh winters of my hometown Salt Lake City, but I’m not overly keen on the humidity that comes with living in the South. I can only imagine that living in Florida will be worse, even if it is only 4.5 hours from where I am now. The average summer temperatures in Tallahassee aren’t very different than in Atlanta, but I suspect the increased humidity will make it feel a ton worse. The winters are slightly warmer than Atlanta, so they should be very nice. (Oops, I guess that should go in the pros section.). Of course, with the climate also comes the gigantic bugs—bumblebees that look like flying eggplants, cockroaches that could tackle a small child, etc. I’m still not thrilled about them.
2. Geographical Location (climate issues aside). It would have been nice to live somewhere closer to home. I really liked the idea of being able to drive home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other special occasions, which would have been possible had I gotten into UC-Riverside. Now the chance of seeing family is greatly reduced. Melanie and I were kind of spoiled during our first year in Atlanta, when we happened to have a lot of family and friends visiting us. I think that time has passed, so if we’re still on the opposite side of the country from our family, the visits will be very few and far between. Sad.
3. Cost of living. Rumor has it that Florida is pretty expensive. When Melanie and I first moved to Atlanta, we were shocked at the difference in prices out here compared to Salt Lake City. And not just in obvious things, like rent. Milk, vegetables, and just about everything else costs lots more here than in SLC. When we complained about this to some of our newfound Atlanta friends, they told us that they moved here from Florida, and so from their perspective, Atlanta had good prices. Now, it’s possible that Tallahassee itself won’t be as horrible as other places in Florida, but chances are it will be at least as expensive as Atlanta, and thus still a lot more expensive than Salt Lake City. I’m coming up on two years in Atlanta, but I still get mad when I go to the grocery store. I expect this will continue in Tallahassee.
4. The limited strengths of the FSU philosophy program. FSU has a great program for what I’ve been focusing on in philosophy so far (see the pros section below), but their strengths aren’t quite as diversified as other schools to which I applied. Part of me fears being limited in the areas of philosophy that I can study in depth, and I think other schools would offer me a greater opportunity to branch out. Not that I won’t get a well-rounded education at FSU. It’s just that my interest in, say, philosophy of religion will remain largely unexplored, simply because FSU is unlikely to offer anything other than a survey course in this area.

The Pros

1. The strengths of the FSU philosophy program. The main reason I applied to FSU is because they are considered the second best program in the world when it comes to the main area of philosophy that I’ve been studying so far—action theory, which includes the topic of free will. They also rank among the top 25 or so philosophy programs when it comes to certain areas of ethics, which is a secondary interest of mine. Beyond philosophy, FSU’s overall reputation is a noteworthy one. U.S. News and World Report apparently gave FSU “Tier One” status, and FSU appears on a handful of “top 100 American universities” lists and on at least one “top 200 universities in the world” list. Many of their academic programs are ranked among the top 25 for public universities nationwide.
2. Living in a “small” town. Tallahassee is much smaller than Atlanta, a fact I’m very excited about. With a total population just shy of 160,000, Tallahassee is even smaller than Salt Lake City! It will be the smallest city I’ve ever lived in! And that appeals to me, because I’ve found Atlanta to be rather daunting. I look forward to living somewhere where I can feel comfortable getting to know the whole city, feeling like I can take ownership of it in its entirety rather than just the few streets I happen to drive down everyday. I want to feel like I live in Tallahassee, not just like I live in an apartment that happens to be in Tallahassee. In Atlanta, it sometimes feels more like the latter. (Well, not like I live in an apartment in Tallahassee, but you get my point.)
3. Being on a traditional campus. Actually, I have mixed feelings about this. I think it will be neat to finish out my college student experience at a more traditional university, to have that kind of community and ambience. But I admit, it’s been kind of fun to go to a school at Georgia State, where the philosophy department is located on the 11^th floor of a skyscraper, which gives it a very modern, businesslike atmosphere. Nevertheless, it will feel more college-y to spend my days on a traditional campus. I’ll enjoy walking around a more peaceful setting, feeling like I’m at an institution of higher learning and not just walking around downtown. Landscaping is going to be an exciting addition to my graduate school experience! (In fact, from photos I’ve seen, there may even be palm trees! How funny!)
4. Proximity to Atlanta. Not that I plan on coming back to Atlanta in particular, but it will certainly help when it comes to moving. Granted, loading up (and unloading) the moving truck is the hardest part of a move, but given that Melanie and I will once again be moving with a newborn (thankfully a slightly older newborn this time around), it will be nice not to move all the way across the country. 4.5 hours in a U-Haul is manageable. Spending a week in a U-Haul … not so pleasant. So, that’s yet another perk.

Dodd Hall, home of FSU's philosophy department

When all said and done, I’m very excited. It’s taken a few days for it to really sink in that this is real and not just something that might happen, but the further in it sinks, the more excited I get. As a final note to any family and friends who are reading this, we should be living in Tallahassee for at least four years. This means you all have plenty of time to save up some dough and come see us at least once. I’m talking to all of you! Start saving now!

Note: A decent amount of information in this post was taken from various Wikipedia articles, including but not limited to those on Tallahassee and Florida State University.