Two bits...

... about my (chubby) (Thai) coworker from the (Thai) restaurant where I work now:

1) She texted me like over a week into my COVID quarantine, saying she misses me at work.

2) Right before my COVID quarantine when she had shown me pics from her recent out-of-town trip to attend a K-Pop concert at a stadium in a major metropolitan, it was immediately clear that she had boughten like really, really good tickets, like standing area in front of the stage tickets.

"Oh my god, how much did you pay for your ticket?", I was like.

And, she wouldn't tell me.

. . .

A solved mystery.

After like a week of COVID, I was cleared per CDC guidelines to be around people if I wore a high quality mask, so I made a quick trip to the local bakery and hippie/yuppie co-op for groceries.

And, at the latter, I impulse-bought a cool greeting card with a rainbow underneath the phrase  MANIFESTING SOMETHING AWESOME FOR YOU, to give to my one former (assisted living) client with (disabilities) (it's totally her style and sentiment).

But, after I got home and unpacked my groceries, I couldn't find it anywhere! And I looked! And I even checked inside all of my reusable canvas grocery bags, and the upper cabinet where I keep them!

I also called the store and they looked around for me and they couldn't find it, either, so I ended up just assuming that I had left it out by the register and someone had reshelved it, end of story.

Then, like a week later, I open my freezer and check instructions on a frozen pizza I had bought, and there the card is, just sitting out in my refrigerator's freezer.

The plastic of the card's display envelope must have stuck to the bottom of the plastic wrap of the frozen pizza I had boughten, and so I must have furtively transferred it into my freezer, inadvertently.

Learning other languages (2 of 2): Another coworker.

Like a month ago I was chit-chatting with my one (young) (tall) (skinny) (Latino-American) coworker, and I asked him if he could learn any language in the world, which one would it be.

And, he said French.

And, I asked him why.

And, he said because he already had some French in high school.

So, I then took like ten minutes, and I explained to him all the various ways that (French) people are shitty, and why it'd be so much cooler to learn Portuguese and truly be in with (Brazilian) people, who tend on the whole to be so much cooler and nicer. And, since he already knows Spanish, Portuguese would be super easy, maybe even easier than French.

And, he seemed intrigued, and he said that his (Mexican) dad has a (Brazilian) friend, and though he doesn't know him all that well, he seems really nice.

"See," I was like.

He also mentioned he's earned some bilingualism certificate, so he pretty much tests out of having to take any optional foreign language classes in college ever again, though he'd still maybe take one for fun.

"So take Portuguese," I was like.

. . .

Learning other languages (1 of 2): One coworker.

Like a month ago I was chit-chatting with my one (Pentecostal) (Guatemalan) coworker, and I asked him if he could learn any language in the world, which one would it be.

And, he said English.

And, I asked him why.

And, he said because he needs better English to talk at the bank.

. . .

An observation on character.

So, my one (Mormon) colleague suggested we do a summer wrap-up call to sum up what we'd been reading this summer, and we ended up chatting quite a bit about our work.

And, when I mentioned that getting COVID kind of sucked because I had a writing backlog that I wanted to whittle down, and it had come at almost the worst possible time, he was like, "But being a researcher means you always have new things to say."

Which is very true!

He was also mentioning to me that the only big music concert he's ever been to is this one kind of transgressive punk bank that's quasi-satanist and dresses up in elaborate costumes and has a lot of songs against organized religion. He went a few years ago, and it was good but a little weird, he said; he said it's almost more like a theater event than a rock concert, in his opinion.

(I didn't ask him if his wife or kids went.)

More niceness.

After I had texted the (husband) boss at the (Thai) restaurant where I work now on our work messaging app about how I had still tested positive for COVID and to expect me out for the full ten days, he wrote that his (wife) with the tired face had asked if I wanted some food, she could bring it over.

Feeling out academic positions.

Just like happened 3-4 years ago, a very interesting temp position in the EU surfaced in my inbox a few months ago, so once I had my most recent conference proposal together -- it's on a related topic -- I sent a letter of inquiry about a fellowship at that project, which is just starting up (wouldn't it be fun to live and work in the EU?!).

And, the one (EU nationality) PI who I wrote seemed very interested, and now I have to put together a CV to send him.

As this was going on, a major major program in the US put out a tenure track announcement, and my recent research as an outsider to their discipline lastingly corrects some basic, basic sh*t in an area that's at the core of the announcement.

I'm half-thinking of sending them an app; I already have to put together a CV for the EU stuff, and I already have a writing sample, and this is just like 3 pages more I could dash off and listing some references, and paying the Interfolio fee.

The department seems like a disaster because of some highly-publicized unethical tenure stuff that went on with someone who's still there, and it's probably a wrong fit and I'd have worse quality of life and less time to read and write with a job like that -- the academy in the U.S., UK, and Australia has become such a mess! -- but I'm half-interested to see how they'd react to my application, given the superiority of the research; I imagine it'd be the best they'd receive, if they could see it, and if their resentment and/or sh*tty training doesn't cloud their judgment.

What's the worst that could happen -- no interview? -- and what's the best that could happen -- they want me and I try to negotiate tenure, a sweet salary, and no responsibilities, in order to accept the position, and if they say no, I say no?

Although you don't say it like that, my current position is that my major article that's in draft and undergoing peer review right now is so strong, that it alone already deserves swift and automatic granting of tenure at a top program, even prior to acceptance and publication. And that's not having grandiose ideations; that's actually a realistic evaluation of its merits vis-a-vis the field, which is so highly f*cked and so unbelievably sh*tty.

(As I have described the scholarship to others, it's "just levels upon levels of f*cked.")

Overall, though, I have a feeling that if I gain any traction with this line of achievement, it will be outside the U.S., and outside that specific discipline.

Like so many other sectors, though, it's severely declining opportunities and no guarantee of basics, no matter how well you do, as I've found out already over the past like 10-15 years in just multiple, multiple places, where they want you to grovel for sh*t and stay subordinate like that forever, or as they lie about merit and hustle and everything goes to the mediocre people who waltz in with the money and the connections.