I have been keeping track of how many projects I’ve graded this semester, and of how many I have left. This semester I’ll collect and grade 167 projects. I’ve graded 98. I plan to grade three more tonight before bed.

My parents are in town. They will watch the boys on Thursday morning while AMKT and I run a 5k, then have Thanksgiving lunch with us in Charlotte at my in-laws’ house.

I don’t like getting behind in my writing projects, but I am behind in my writing projects. I want to have a book proposal ready to send out by the end of the month, but it is looking like I will have to extend my self-imposed deadline to next month.

At this point in the semester I spend much of my day grading. I still have around 70 projects to collect and grade before the end of the semester. I can typically get through four projects an hour, but after that hour I have to take an extended break. I have made a significant accomplishment if I grade eight projects in a day.

Tonight AMKT went to the fall musical at the university. I fed dinner to the boys, watched television with them, read to them, and put them to bed. Now the house is quiet, and I will try to grade four more projects before I put myself to bed.

My graduate advisee and I met at Starbucks yesterday morning. He is defending his thesis proposal Wednesday, so we reviewed his presentation. I was impressed with how he articulated his project.

 

Yesterday afternoon I worked on the book proposal, but got stuck trying to articulate what the book is about. The book makes sense in my head, but I am struggling to put on paper the topic I’ve been drafting for years. I am certain my graduate advisee has gone through something similar, but at Starbucks he showed he’s overcome that hurdle. I hope I will, too.

It has taken about a week, but I am finally close to catching back up on the work I left behind last week when I went to Baltimore.

My graduate advisee sent his project proposal to the other committee members last night. The proposal defense is Wednesday.

Tonight I took EJT to Harris Teeter. He took his pants off in the middle of aisle seven.

CKT came to work with me today. It was one of those days that I know he will remember forever, if for no other reason than the experience of going to work with his Daddy. There was nothing remarkable about work today except that CKT was there, and that alone was enough to make it remarkable for me.

CKT brought his journal and composed a story while I met with a student during office hours. The story covers how the student had a technical issue with her video footage, and how I worked with the student to solve the problem. One of the sentences says that I told CKT to be quiet. That’s probably true–I know I told him to stop jumping on the futon in my office. I’m a little sad, though, that one of the takeaways from the story–and from the trip to Daddy’s office in general–was that I told CKT to be quiet.

The Wonder Years produced an episode titled “My Father’s Office” in which the twelve-year-old Kevin accompanies his father to work. Kevin sees what his middle-management father does throughout the day, and at the climax observes his father getting chewed out by the boss. It gave Kevin a new perspective on what his father is like, and why he is so surly after work. It is a poignant episode (weren’t they all?), and it resonated with me when I watched it for the first time when I was twelve. Like Kevin, I didn’t know what my father did, or how his workplace stressors affected his home life. And now, as a father with a grown-up job, I took my boy to work, and maybe as a result he understands me a little better. I hope he likes what he saw.

I returned to work today after traveling to and from Baltimore. One the one hand I believe I got caught back up–on the other, I know this week will be busy and may set me back. I am managing classes for a colleague on Tuesday and Thursday. I am collecting 39 productions to grade on Friday. I am taking CKT to class tomorrow. And, my graduate advisee is submitting his thesis project proposal in the next few days.

Now that the Baltimore conference is over, I’ve started working on the book prospectus again. I have a list of about ten items to complete for the prospectus, with the goal of getting it out the door by December.

I had a thought this morning during church. Many churches–whose names I won’t mention, but you know who they are–try to appeal to church-goers with worship services rely on performance, or popularity, or some other sense of showmanship. Many of those services come across as inauthentic at best, and juvenile at worst. The more we tolerate these services, the less we can complain when people call Christianity stupid.

I also thought about narrative voices during church. The third-person voice is declarative; the first-person voice is confessional. Both can be effective when used appropriately and intentionally. But the second-person voice is almost always poor. It comes across as accusatory.

I’m thinking about moving the television into the playroom. That will consolidate some of the clutter into an out-of-the-way room. I cleaned out the playroom closet today in preparation for the move.

Tonight CKT asked me what as phone book is.

The conference presentation went well today. After the conference I had a long conversation with one of the panel’s sponsors. He had some positive things to say about the talk.

I learned the conference sponsors a top paper/presentation competition. I plan to enter.

I really don’t like conferences, though. They are lonely experiences for me. I don’t handle small talk well. I’ve never heard a conference presentation that changed my life. They make me feel lonely, and exacerbate my depression. The advantage of conferences is that they give me deadlines and demand some semblance of rigor. However, I’ll attend my final academic conference someday, and at times I wish that day were sooner rather than later.

I’ve had a great time staying with Danelle and Tony. If you are ever in Baltimore, stop by their house.

I spent most of the day in my car driving north, up I-85 to I-95, through Washington, DC, and into Baltimore. Tomorrow I present a project at the MAPACA conference; tonight I’m staying with my cousin-in-law and her family.

I listened to Christian radio throughout much of rural Virginia. There are only a few dominant themes in contemporary Christian music: life without Jesus is miserable; people need healing; Jesus thinks you are special and wonderful, even though you are otherwise a miserable person who needs healing. I don’t listen to contemporary Christian music much because it makes me mad–it reduces my faith to a mere self-help system with cloying media. This type of faith is hardly better than no faith at all.

The Christian life is one of service, not self-help. If my faith does not compel me to serve others, then I am no better than the listeners of Christian radio.

Over a year ago, I wrote a post after one of my manuscripts was rejected. I was pretty upset. This morning, I completed the revisions on the proofs on that same manuscript in preparation for its publication next month. I am pretty happy.

We took the boys to the Halloween festival at my father-in-law’s church last night. CKT won the second-place costume prize for his rhino outfit.

I am about to grade a couple projects, and perhaps work on the presentation I’ll give at a conference on Friday.