Friday, December 30, 2011

#56--Pondering Thesis Ideas

I'm torn. I can't decide if I want to do a Creative Writing thesis or a Non-Creative Thesis.

There are pros and cons to each side. Let's start with the Creative Thesis.

Creative Pros:
I am very creative.
I currently have a ton of ideas to pull from/work with.
I would have a blast writing a creative thesis.
I would easily be able to relate my own work with a field of writing (like magical realism or that "everyday horror").
I would be challenged, but maybe not as much as a non-creative thesis.

Creative Cons:
I would be challenged, but maybe not as much as a non-creative thesis.
It might be too easy.
I may not fully relate it to the area of writing.
A creative thesis may not open many doors for me career (or continued education) -wise.


Non-Creative Pros:
I am very interested in language learning/acquisition as well as linguistics and rhetoric.
With this thesis and background, I could travel more for work.
I may have a bigger job market or greater opportunities (education included).
I would be challenged a lot.
I would learn something.
I would more easily be able to become part of the academia in a particular field.
I could publish my works/findings/research and become more well known/have even more opportunities come my way.
I could eventually (or do this with my thesis) link the impact linguistics/language has on writing whether it is creative or not, and how these ties influence authors/readers/researchers on multiple levels.

Non-Creative Cons:
I would be challenged a LOT.
I might get burned out.
I may not like it as much as I thought.
Dr. Storm would probably be my committee chair for my thesis defense. (EEP!)



What do you think?

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

#55--End of the Semester Giddyness

First things first--the semester is done! I posted grades today for my students and was able to view my own grades as well.

We moved recently out of a house and a bad situation. We are renting our own place now and are much happier. While the drama is not completely done and packed away, it has reduced to almost nothing. The only thing left for us to do is to clean up our old place, but that will likely be difficult given that our former roommate still lives there. Hopefully we will be able to go over and clean without running into him or even having to speak to him really. BLAH!

I got a puppy for my birthday and his name is Alfonz. We call him Fonz or Fonzie. He is a mini-schnauzer that we got from my mom. He's pretty mellow for the most part, loves to play and loves to cuddle. His favorite things are chewing on rawhides and chasing bugs.

This holiday season has been rough on everyone. We chose to move at a time that was not the best for us financially, but we were able to come out in the green for this month anyway. This will make next month feel pretty awesome, since we won't have to pay extra fees associated with moving.

As break has officially begun, I am quite excited to be able to do a whole lot of nothing for a day or two, then get back into the swing of writing or I might read a book for fun--not for a class. Strange I know.

Today we did some Christmas shopping and I had more fun doing it than I thought/remembered. I am looking forward to Christmas this year, even though money has been tight. Maybe the government will get its stuff sorted out and then the whole nation will be better off. But that may never happen since this nation as a whole is so money-oriented. At the same time, the whole world is tripped out on money, so that complicates things even further.

Ah, oh well. At the moment, these are things I have no way of fixing, and so rather than stress myself out about them, I will set them aside (not ignore them, because that doesn't solve anything) for now and return to them later when some of my brain power has been returned.

In the meantime, I am trying to think of what to do for my thesis. I really have no idea. I wanted originally to do something with the elements of resistance and submission of victims in vampire fiction, but that seems awfully broad and potentially overdone. Then I thought of doing something regarding the use of laughter as a literary tool, specifically maniacal laughter. However, this topic may be too difficult to research. Then I thought of something regarding linguistics or language acquisition. Those are definitely fields that I could easily become a part of, and likely have a career set out before me for the rest of my life. With additional studies I am sure that it would be a fulfilling career too. However, none of this means that I have given up on my dream of writing creative fiction and being a published author. Teaching is also a viable career option, and not out of the question. However, if I do teach, I would like to teach an upper level kind of class in a collegiate or university setting. While community colleges are great, they are not exactly a place I dream of teaching at.

While I feel like I have a lot more to say since the last time I posted, most of it is stuff that has either been resolved or no longer matters that much.

Ciao for now.