yet another crosspost: from adj-l
Posted by vlorbik on March 9, 2010
we got $40 a “contact hour” for classroom work
where i last was… and $20/hour for the one-on-one
“learning center” tutoring.
i was getting by at that campus at something around
20 grand a year (give or take) for the last few years.
this is summers-in, natch… never turning anything down…
back before i became a pariah (for living too long
from all i can tell, since i was always on time
with the grades and was generally quite popular
with students and so on), i’d adjuncted around here
at as many as three schools at a time
(big state u, church-affiliated little u.,
and bigstate community college) and been
pretty comfortable by my standards at it
financially (and proud of carrying a
9-course workload… once). but i forget
the actual figures and have very likely
destroyed the records.
this is ohio by the way.
state of weird legislation
exempting its adjuncts
from respect from its
labor relations board.
(4117 if memory serves;
our failed drive at
bigstate cc was the
best financial year
of my life since i worked
halftime for the international
as an organizer while teaching,
at the usual ~20K, across
the street. woulda been
great if we’d known what
we were doing [and hadn't
made our move too soon...
i think i'll have said something
about that already]).
much of the “real” pay of course…
organizing or teaching…
is the people you work with
along the way.
i had an amazing run from that point of view.
almost a quarter-century of saying true things
as clearly as i knew how, for pay… and talking
to students and teachers “along the way” about
math, the universe, and everything.
from a dollars-and-cents angle?
down so long the crash looked like up.
anyhow now that *everybody’s*
out of work, i look like less of a loser.
sometimes. a little bit. from far away.
if you’re not looking. maybe.
i got my ph.d. in ’92 if that’s of any interest;
four years in the minor leagues after that
(a *different* church-affiliated college [now
styling itself a "university", to absurdly
little ridicule]). adjuncting after that.
jd2718 said
down so long the crash looked like up.
not sure what I think of communicating through melody-free song lyrics… But that one could be catchy, with the right tune…
vlorbik said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fariña
gets most of the credit for any poetry
in this phrase since i swiped it directly
from the title
_been_down_so_long_it_looks_like_up_to_me_ .
this cat married joan baez’s sister
& was part of the east village scene
when dylan was coming up through there
and all that so i’ve known about him
since the early 70′s… i read a little
of the beginning of the book but quit pretty soon.
i was too young for it i imagine. anyhow it’s a great title.
as for melodies.
well, i recorded a few of my songs
in a session of about half an hour
yesterday… erasing utter bungles
but keeping a couple first takes
and never going beyond about three.
if it was “good enough”, then *maybe*
i’d start thinking about how to transfer
it up onto the net. probably i could get
some stuff i considered worth publishing
on any “good” day if i thought
the mac-to-internet transfer
wouldn’t be a bitter struggle
(from which i would learn
almost nothing i could use
in *any other setting* [or
even in this one for long]).
so we’ll see. in fact, my *real* interest…
in the sense of “might even be willing
to engage a pro”… will probably have
been making transfers to cassettes
(that i can then peddle for a few bucks
at shows: “you know that one song
you said wasn’t as awful as the others?
… that’s right here on this *tape*!
… want one? these *here* are just
five bucks apiece! but you *really*
oughta get…” )
anyhow, *my* stuff is pretty tuneless.
most of it that *has* a tune is some
version of the 12-bar blues.
there’s some country in there
in the fingerpickin action
and a whole lot i guess
in my voice (southern indiana
sounds pretty hillbilly to
flyover people; my roots
come out loud and clear
in my singing voice even
if you somehow missed it
when i talk…).
but mostly blues.
with a rock beat like as not.
i’m starting to feel like i get
what all the fuss is about
with rock rhythm guitar.
even “lead” playing now
appears much less a mystery.
i need to get an electric
i think (and amp alas).
anyhow. long story longer.
putting your own tunes to ‘em
probably works better than
waiting to hear mine…
*particularly* if you’ve got
any skills in this general area.
the chance of me learning to read and write
(any better; i did a semester of piano
and it did me a world of good but
it’s almost all gone now) any time soon
remains quite small. i’m gonna be
taking better and better notes in
my own nonce notations though
(because i have better ideas to
notate; these come from having
the strength and endurance
in my hand to *copy my own
mistakes* clearly [and thereby
learn from 'em]).