Thursday, December 06, 2007

So Pho, What Have You Been Doing with Yourself?

A fair question. I haven't been blogging much, and it's not for want of material. An aggragation of distractions has kept me away. We've been on the east coast both of the last two weekends, Prof. W is out of town, one of the kids is sick, I've been wrapping up my class and working on a writing project and resolving computer issues. Layer on top of that a set of niggling health problems which, if I catelogued them, would make me sound like Mr. Richard Feder of Ft. Lee New Jersey.

So I haven't been writing much.

Today was my last class. I have a stack of term papers to grade, plus a final to give. The class has taken the most out of me. Studying Con Law has been rewarding -- I learned more this run through than either of the first two times through the material. But it is real work. My class next semester should be less demanding, though probably not as much fun.

Meanwhile, the writing. When Jill posts her "Some People Pay Me to Write" links she pulls of a matter of fact tone. I'm feeling all "OMG, someone is paying me to write! Y'know, read stuff, learn about it and write it up. The thing I've been doing for free for the past few years. I found someone who pays me for that!!!" Anyway, my first paying gig is up. Currently the Notebook is my beat (on pages 4-5 of the .pdf.) I wrote the three In Review items, the Elsewhere piece, found the Quotable quote and did the Q&A with OFT President Sue Taylor. I even got a byline-y thing on that, which was unexpected.

And I'd be remiss in not pointing out that the whole issue is a good read featuring interviews with Gov. Strickland and State Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman. And don't forget that subscriptions for hard copy are free.

Anyway, that's where I've been. Now that class is over I have a little more control over my schedule, especially when I finish the piece I'm currently working on. In the meantime, I appreciate everyone's patience.

2 comments:

Jill said...

Hi Pho - Congrats on the great writing work. Trust me, I had scores of unpaid clips before anyone paid me (the PD was the first!). Now, the reason I do that "some people pay me" thing is because I'll always remember how Russell Hughlock asked me, at the ODP June 2006 event, when I saw him at the Joe Biden speech in that smallish room in another part of the convention center, something along the lines of, "well, what DO you do??" or such.

My response was something like, "well, some people pay me to write."

:)

Congrats on the teaching too - that's a real workload. And happy holidays!

Annie said...

I was starting to get worried about you!