Oromendur: Through Eriador to the Shire

[oromendur]

 

Greetings, fellow sojourners on the #adventurerlife! It’s, um, been a while...

 

I just poked through my old threads, and it appears that I have missed two challenges completely (not to mention a switch to a new five-week format), and of the two previous to those, one lasted two weeks and another not even one before everything came apart at the seams.  

 

Well, I’m back... Time to pick myself up, dust myself off, and try again.

 

A recap of my recent life, for those new to the oromendur saga: I finished my PhD program this past spring, graduated in May, and have spent the summer in various wilderness adventures (Alaska, Montana, Wyoming), willfully ignoring the inconvenient realities of my post-grad-student life. My current self-deprecating joke is that I’ve gone from being gainfully unemployed to just being straight-up unemployed, but I’m not letting that stop me from adventuring. And by ‘adventuring’ I mean ‘running away from the huge mess that is my life in California.’ This update finds me at the beginning of a two-month trip that involves a week in a timeshare in Finland, another week in a timeshare in Sweden, about three weeks with friends in Shropshire in the UK, and about a week in London for an academic conference at which I am presenting (which serves, just barely, as a justification for the trip). Then, during Week Zero of the next challenge, I will spend some time on the East Coast, visiting friends and attending (gasp!) my twenty-fifth college reunion, before stopping off with other friends in Boulder on my way home. My neglected and increasingly ramshackle house, my car desperately in need of service, and my very unwell septic tank will all be waiting for me when I get back around the first of November. 

 

I have returned once again to the Rebellion because I NEED ACCOUNTABILITY. After my recent challenges fell apart, I ended up getting further derailed by some unpleasant medical and dental issues. Now, thanks to the VA health system (and a somewhat adventurous trip to Mexico for dental work not covered by the VA) I think I’m on the mend (or at least well enough to travel again), and I would like to start being a bit more conscious of my physical, mental, and spiritual condition.

 

Physical condition: WALKING

“That’s good for a beginning. I feel like walking. I can’t bear any more hanging about.” ~Frodo, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

It makes no sense whatsoever to have expended money I don’t have and energy I can’t spare on these random Nordic adventures and not get outside to experience them. I want to enjoy the Finnish woods and the Swedish mountains and England’s green and pleasant hills, not just look at them through cabin windows while staring at a screen (although there will have to be a good bit of that too — see “mental” below). In the interest of simplicity, I’ll just fall back on a tracking method that has worked in previous challenges: taking advantage of the fitness tracker I wear all the time anyway (MIO Slice).

 

GOAL: I will keep my PAI score over 100 at least five days per week, one point per day, extra days earn extra points.

 

Mental condition: WRITING

“I don’t think, Mr. Frodo, that he’s done much writing while we’ve been away.” ~Sam, The Return of the King

 

Yeah, Sam, me neither (sigh). That’s another one of my (meager) justifications for this trip: freed from the stress of the disaster that is my home, I am hoping I will be able to get some serious work done. You see, I am running out of money. No, seriously. I already had to sell off some of my scant retirement assets to get through 2019, and it’s starting to look like I’ll have to do it again in 2020, and there’s only so much of that I can do before things completely fall apart. Now that I’ve got my PhD in hand, I intend to make as credible an attempt as I can at finding an academic job. 

 

Spoiler for unproductive but on-topic digression:

Spoiler

 

I am perfectly aware of the grimness of the academic job market these days. I am also perfectly aware that, with an uncertain interdisciplinary degree from an obscure for-profit university, twenty five years stretching between my undergraduate and graduate work, and pretty much zero academic experience, the likelihood of my landing a postdoc — much less a tenure-track position — is vanishingly small. BUT. I am not a desperate young newly-graduated PhD with tons of debt and no real life experience. I'm nearly 47 years old, with more than twenty years of operational involvement in many different situations around the world, and I bring a lot more to the table than many of the bright-eyed young things with whom I’ll be competing. I am generally unwilling to submit to the outright adjunct slavery positions, the adjunct slavery positions masquerading as postdoctoral appointments, or the full-time non-tenure-track teaching positions with a 5/5 teaching load and no opportunity for research or job security that seem to make up the majority of academic positions available these days, so I’m just going to apply for jobs I’m willing to do and leave it at that. And if it doesn’t work out, well, I have other options. I feel like I should at least try, though, after everything I went through to get here

 

Anyway. I have compiled a list of eight open tenure-track positions and two postdocs for which I am at least arguably qualified. Seven of those ten have application deadlines during this challenge. The requirements vary: a cover letter tailored to each one at the very least, and then some permutations of teaching statements or research statements or diversity statements or writing samples or dissertation chapters or whatnot. Whatever. It’s a lot of writing.

 

GOAL: I will submit applications for seven positions, two points per application. I am permitted to submit the other three early if I need extra points.

 

There are also two other simultaneous writing projects that MUST get done this challenge.

 

GOAL: I will submit a chapter to an edited collection that accepted my proposal, complete and on time. Four points. (It’s a big chapter, in a somewhat unfamiliar field for me, so there’s a bit of research to do in addition to the writing.)

 

GOAL: I will prepare and deliver my talk on Tolkien at the International Conference on Ecocriticism and Environmental Studies in London on 19 Oct. Two points. (My paper is really just a rehash of the last chapter of my dissertation, so I can wing it if I have to, but I’d rather not. If I don’t prepare notes and a slide presentation, I don’t get the points.) 

 

Spiritual condition: THANKING

“Frodo sat, eating, drinking, and talking with delight; but his mind was chiefly on the words spoken. He knew a little of the elf-speech and listened eagerly. Now and again he spoke to those that served him and thanked them in their own language. They smiled at him and said laughing: ‘Here is a jewel among hobbits!’” The Fellowship of the Ring

 

It is distressingly easy for me to fall into an ugly ‘poor me’ game and get lost in self-pity and complaints about my hard existence. It’s ridiculous, of course, and objectively I know I am extremely lucky and live a life many people would give anything to enjoy, but this regrettable tendency is not really a rational thing — and yet it can descend in an instant and leave me gasping and unable to function. I’ve spent MUCH too much time here lately. It needs to stop. The best way I have found to counter this particular lie I tell myself is to consciously and publicly focus on the many things around me that are amazing and awesome. So, resurrecting another successful element of past challenges, I will dust off my NF Instagram account and start capturing small daily joys.

 

GOAL: I will post on Instagram about something for which I am grateful at least four times per week, one point per post, extra posts earn extra points, limit 7 points per week.

 

Since I’m getting this challenge up so early, I’m going to count Week Zero as a challenge week for a total of 65 challenge points. I need to spend some time thinking about what might be a suitable reward for success; right now, at the start of an already fairly indulgent and leisurely holiday, I can’t think of anything in particular I want, and I don’t really have the money to buy anything extraneous anyway...  Perhaps, if I complete the challenge successfully, I’ll give myself permission to use the one day I have left on this year’s Disneyland ticket to go and check out the new Star Wars land sometime in early November? Maybe. (shrug) If I come up with anything better, I’ll edit this post to reflect it.

 

As always, I’ll end with my normal pre-emptive apology for being so sucky at posting on the forums. I’ll commit to weekly updates here at least. More is better. I will also try to be more active on other people’s threads; it would be a good thing for me to pay back some of the social benefits I always seem to take but never give here in the Rebellion, and maybe it will help keep me on track.

 

Good luck to everyone in their own challenges!

[WolfDreamer]

6 hours ago, oromendur said:

Good luck to everyone in their own challenges!

 

Thank you, and good luck and welcome back to you, as well! I know what it feels like to start a challenge and then have life get in the way. There is no shame in having to tackle life's priorities. We're glad you're back with us. Let me know if I can help in any way.

[oromendur]

On day 2, I am pleased to report that I went for a walk into town and got my PAI score over 100 for the first time in <checks> 30 days*. Also, the incoming feed on my NF Instagram is basically nothing but food porn and kittens and I should totally hang out there more often

 

* That's -- sobering. I've been more inactive than I thought 

[oromendur]

20 hours ago, WolfDreamer said:

We're glad you're back with us.

 

Thanks! It feels good to be back. Here's hoping I can stick it out this time.

[annyshay]

Welcome back! Solid goals. Here for you.

[oromendur]

7 hours ago, annyshay said:

Solid goals. Here for you. 

 

Thanks! Likewise!

[Stronkey Kong]

Following!

 

Oof. Good luck with the academic job search. I quit a PhD program after six years partly because of the diminishing career prospects. What is your field?

[oromendur]

6 hours ago, Curl Brogo said:

What is your field?

 

Well, my diploma says “Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology.”

 

(Go ahead and chuckle, and ask ‘so, um, what are you going to do with that?’ I promise you won’t be the first )

 

Thankfully, my dissertation gives me a bit more useful meaning to work with. I wrote on the mythic origins and modern implications of idea of wilderness in Tolkien, and with good cover letters I am hoping I can massage that into a fit for several different programs in the environmental humanities (which is such a mushy field in itself that ‘mythological studies’ sounds downright canonical). I’m also looking at some positions in rhetoric and composition, because both my field and my dissertation are quite literature-oriented, and the strong religious component of myth makes me willing to claim I can teach introductory religious history or religious studies. There aren’t any open positions there that I can see at the moment (and I would have to think hard about applying anyway because those departments really do tend to want specialists), but I’m hoping that using it as a “by the way I could help out in this way too” will make my application more attractive to places already looking for an interdisciplinary candidate.

 

6 hours ago, Curl Brogo said:

I quit a PhD program after six years partly because of the diminishing career prospects.

 

What was your program in?  

 

6 hours ago, Curl Brogo said:

Oof. Good luck with the academic job search.

 

Thanks. I know it’s a long shot, but I definitely won’t hit the target if I don’t try.

[Ann of Owlshire]

Welcome back! I’ve been thinking about you... when are you in London?

[oromendur]

3 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

Welcome back! I’ve been thinking about you... when are you in London?

 

Hey! Welcome! I wondered if you’d be around this challenge. I will be in London roughly 16-20 October, and I would totally be up for lunch or coffee any day except Wednesday (I’m already booked for lunch and having dinner with my hosts) or Saturday (the day of the conference). PM me with details of where you are and let’s try and connect this trip! 

[Infinity.Creates]

Despite the limited career choices, that honestly sound like a very interesting diploma! Anything that touches on being interdisciplinary always increases my interest thousand-fold, and yours sound really mixed!! 

[oromendur]

Yikes! Monday already! How do these challenges always end up speeding by so fast?

 

[WEEK 0 UPDATE]

 

I spent my first week of the challenge in a holiday timeshare cabin in central Finland (a little town called Kivijärvi). It was quiet and secluded and green and gorgeous, but all of the writing looming ahead of me meant that the unexpectedly poor internet connectivity caused me more than a little stress. Still, from a challenge perspective, it didn't go too badly. 

 

WALKING: 6/5. On my second day I managed to overcome my jet-lagged inertia, get outside and out into the lush Finnish boreal forest surrounding me on all sides, and establish a fairly good pattern. Once I got my PAI score up it was easy to keep it there all week. I did some local wandering around the resort, and I also went on two easy ~7km hikes in Salamajärvi National Park: the Metsäperäläisen taival trail, which makes a circle around Lake Iso Koirajärvi, and the Pahapuron lenkki trail, which actually dips into the Salamanperä Strict Nature Reserve set up to protect the re-introduced forest reindeer in Central Ostrobothnia. (Isn't that a delightful placename? And doesn't the Finnish language remind you of a colicky AI barfing vowels? ) It was such a lovely place -- I was steps away from all the endless taiga my little woods-happy heart could desire, and there was almost no one around so I could be as introverted and hermit-like as I wanted. I didn't want to leave.

 

WRITING: 0. ARGH. I really needed to leave though... I had originally planned on getting the lion's share of my work done this week; it was the only one I will have completely to myself during the whole trip, and it was about as quiet and peaceful and inspirational as I could possibly have hoped. Unfortunately, my cabin didn't have wi-fi, and the reception area/restaurant with wi-fi was only open for about a total of eight hours spread across the whole week I was there. It turns out that if one is to tailor academic job applications to specific institutions, it’s kind of important to be able to access institution websites to get information for said tailoring, and the slow and frustrating mobile roaming data on my phone was just not up to the task. Now, instead of being comfortably ahead, I'm very behind (sigh).

 

THANKING: 4/4. Despite all of the failure in my second task, it wasn't very hard to find things to inspire gratitude: pretty much every time I started to get frustrated or feel sorry for myself, I just had to look out the closest window at the misty moody broody woods embracing me and my heart would ease. It's stunning how good for my mental health being that close to wilderness experience really is. Perhaps this academic job search (assuming I ever get any wretched applications done) will be what it takes to get me to move out of my southern California hobbit hole into a place where water falls out of the sky so I can live in the woods again. We'll have to see. 

 

Weekly total 10 points, overall challenge total 10/65. Not bad. Not great -- but not bad.

I lost most of the weekend to travel as my adventure shifted from the Finnish phase to the Swedish phase, and I am now comfortably ensconced in another cozy timeshare in the tiny town of Åre. It's low season here, after the height of mountain biking and before the snow that makes this place a world-class Alpine skiing destination. It's therefore nicely quiet, but a friend from the UK has joined me for the week, which means I actually have to speak words and get dressed occasionally. She's a good sport who understands introverts, though. Today she actually went food shopping in a strange Swedish town all by herself so I could stay in and get writing done. That meant I didn't get any exercise, though, so I'll have to do better tomorrow.

 

All in all, well begun -- but I MUST MUST MUST do better on the application front this week. It is unconscionable of me to expect my reference-writers to turn on a dime, and my first deadline is now only two weeks away 

[oromendur]

21 hours ago, Infinity.Creates said:

Despite the limited career choices, that honestly sound like a very interesting diploma! Anything that touches on being interdisciplinary always increases my interest thousand-fold, and yours sound really mixed!! 

 

Oh, yes, my field is nothing in not interdisciplinary  Think of a Venn diagram covering religion, literature/folklore, and psychology -- myth resides where those three meet. I think it's fascinating, but let's hope the search committees agree!

[Infinity.Creates]

36 minutes ago, oromendur said:

 

Oh, yes, my field is nothing in not interdisciplinary  Think of a Venn diagram covering religion, literature/folklore, and psychology -- myth resides where those three meet. I think it's fascinating, but let's hope the search committees agree!

 

I personally am in love with metaphysics and particularly the questions on free will and consciousness. It's sometimes incredibly challenging as a Christian, but the ways it interacts with philosophy, physics, biology, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, etc are absolutely fascinating. 

I think if I'd taken English instead of Philosophy at A-level though, the intersection of society, mythology and religion would be super fascinating and something I would have ended up looking more into!

[Elastigirl]

Water falls out of the sky all the time here in Washington! And we have lots of trees. I live in the suburbs, but my home has a greenbelt, so half my backyard is cedar trees. I love sitting on our deck and looking out at the trees.

[Sciread77]

Oh goodness. Realized I’m not following. 

 

Rectified. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

It’s so frustrated when you run into road blocks like that >_< But, hey, you had beautiful Finland to explore!

 

 

[Stronkey Kong]

On 9/12/2019 at 2:13 AM, oromendur said:

 

Well, my diploma says “Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology.”

 

(Go ahead and chuckle, and ask ‘so, um, what are you going to do with that?’ I promise you won’t be the first )

 

Thankfully, my dissertation gives me a bit more useful meaning to work with. I wrote on the mythic origins and modern implications of idea of wilderness in Tolkien, and with good cover letters I am hoping I can massage that into a fit for several different programs in the environmental humanities (which is such a mushy field in itself that ‘mythological studies’ sounds downright canonical). I’m also looking at some positions in rhetoric and composition, because both my field and my dissertation are quite literature-oriented, and the strong religious component of myth makes me willing to claim I can teach introductory religious history or religious studies. There aren’t any open positions there that I can see at the moment (and I would have to think hard about applying anyway because those departments really do tend to want specialists), but I’m hoping that using it as a “by the way I could help out in this way too” will make my application more attractive to places already looking for an interdisciplinary candidate.

 

 

What was your program in?  

 

 

Thanks. I know it’s a long shot, but I definitely won’t hit the target if I don’t try.

 

That sounds like a fine field to be in. I learned to stop asking people what they are going to do with their degree a long time ago. Any degree with an easily identified future job title means that the program is suited to the role, the field is well defined, and hence the job is probably not as intellectually stimulating. Accounting degrees make accountants.

 

That said, some of those jobs may pay better, but since I have the ability to teach myself and think critically I get bored less often and hence can pass on the sports car.

 

I was a population geneticist (evolutionary genetics/theory). I was drawn to big questions about life, just coming from a different angle than mythology. Now I am a machinist. Meh. Life is funny.

[Sciread77]

22 hours ago, Curl Brogo said:

 

That sounds like a fine field to be in. I learned to stop asking people what they are going to do with their degree a long time ago. Any degree with an easily identified future job title means that the program is suited to the role, the field is well defined, and hence the job is probably not as intellectually stimulating. Accounting degrees make accountants.

 

That said, some of those jobs may pay better, but since I have the ability to teach myself and think critically I get bored less often and hence can pass on the sports car.

 

I was a population geneticist (evolutionary genetics/theory). I was drawn to big questions about life, just coming from a different angle than mythology. Now I am a machinist. Meh. Life is funny.

 

Population geneticist and machinist both sound interesting.  

[oromendur]

Well, I've been much less active on the forums than I'd hoped, but the weeks march on and wait for no one so it's time for a 

 

[WEEK 1 UPDATE]

 

I spent this week in a cheap off-season timeshare in Åre, a tiny ski town in central Sweden. One of my friends from London joined me and we had a wonderfully quiet week -- it was honestly the perfect balance between silent introverted private work and personal interaction. We woke to leisurely mornings, remained more or less ensconced in our own inner worlds until early afternoon, and then set out on minor hiking or shopping or lunching adventures. I've never traveled with this friend on her own before (she joined me at a timeshare in Malta a while back, but she had her son with her) and it was very nice to discover that we're perfectly compatible for the kind of quiet writing retreats I especially like  

 

WALKING: 6/5, cumulative 12/10, overall 12/30. I had kind of a slow start to the week because the travel getting there was exhausting, but the somewhat (accidentally) extreme mountain hike on Thursday *more* than made up for it. Our plan was to hike to the summit of Åreskutan, enjoy waffles and coffee at Sweden's highest-altitude cafe, and then gape at the gorgeous mountain scenery during an easygoing gondola ride back down to the town. All information on the websites (checked that morning) indicated everything was open and running and good to go. In short: the websites LIED. The hike started out nice, following a troll-haunted trail climbing gently through the pleasant brown smell of wet pine needles in autumn, but the unceasing wind blowing the clouds around in the valley turned cold and wet as we climbed. The first whirlwind of blizzard conditions drove us into a wind hut near a non-running ski lift. We considered turning back at that point, but the clouds blew away again, and the blue sky and bright sun shining on the pretty bit of snow coloring the rocks tricked us into continuing. Soon we were slogging through knee-deep snow up a very steep and rocky path. The promise of waffles did a good job of keeping our tired legs going. We were passed in the blowing snow by two young men also looking for waffles; they assured us they'd save us a seat at the cafe. Yeah. When we finally forced ourselves to the summit, there were several very deserted-looking ice-coated and unidentifiable buildings around, but no cafe. Some more people came up from behind us. "Where did you come from?" they asked. "We're looking for the restaurant." Well, we finally found it:

 

 

One of the guys who had passed us earlier shook his head as he saw us struggle up. "No waffles." No kidding. Their group all headed down, assuring us it wasn't far to the gondola. Eight hundred meters, the trail description had told us. Half a mile. The snow was blowing around pretty hard at this point, but surely we could make it half a mile... So as you've probably guessed by now, the gondola wasn't running (sigh). We had an unexpected 8km downhill scramble ahead of us, and we had already spent our reserves just getting there. Of course we were slower on the downhill than the hardy Swedes. I was following them at first, but they soon disappeared into the blizzard conditions, and the visibility was so bad that often I couldn't see the tall poles spaced about ten meters apart marking the trail that would take us back to town. For about an hour I was seriously wondering what the local news would say about the stupid American and Aussie Brit who got lost on the mountain in a blizzard with no gloves and three digestive biscuits between them. There was absolutely nothing we could do but go on, though, so slog on we did. It took us over an hour to hike down out of the blowing snow into the blowing rain. Several hours later we crawled into the local wine bar to patch up our subdued spirits and soothe our wounded pride.

 

As Bilbo would say, adventures aren't always pony rides in May sunshine, and that one definitely qualifies...

 

Anyway. That day gave me more than enough PAI points that, combined with a much less-extreme hike to a local waterfall, exploring the old church, and wandering around drooling at beautiful Scandinavian design in shops, I managed to meet my exercise goal this week.

 

WRITING: 4. I submitted two applications (tenure-track positions) and have a third one (postdoc) ready to push submit as soon as my advisor uploads his wretched letter (sigh). I'm not quite back on track -- there are still two more I hoped to have done last week, and they have more requirements to boot -- but it's at least a bit of forward progress. 

 

THANKING: 2/4, cumulative 6/8, total 6/24. Not as good here, unfortunately. I just got distracted by everything else and forgot to pay enough grateful attention to capture what was around me (although I do think I kept a pretty solid handle on my attitude, all things considered). I will endeavor to be more mindful this week.

 

Weekly total 12 points, overall challenge points 12/65. A little under the glide slope, but if I get the rest of the applications moving and stay on top of the exercise and actually post on IG once or twice I should be all right 

 

Once again the entire weekend was generally lost to travel exhaustion. I'm now in the UK, in a lovely Shropshire country house with the mornings to myself, a dog nagging me for a walk, and several weeks of sleeping in the same bed ahead of me for once. Here's hoping I can find good patterns early.

 

In fact, I think I'll take the dog for a walk right now. Then I will have lunch. Then I will ABSOLUTELY stop procrastinating writing my diversity statement for the next application...

 

Onward!

[oromendur]

On 9/16/2019 at 7:57 PM, Elastigirl said:

Water falls out of the sky all the time here in Washington! And we have lots of trees.

 

Any universities around who might need a mythologist?

 

I actually love the PNW. I was VERY close to moving to Portland about ten years ago. I ended up buying my house in San Diego instead -- but it was a near thing. Sometimes I wonder (sigh)

[oromendur]

On 9/16/2019 at 7:34 PM, Infinity.Creates said:

I personally am in love with metaphysics and particularly the questions on free will and consciousness. It's sometimes incredibly challenging as a Christian, but the ways it interacts with philosophy, physics, biology, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, etc are absolutely fascinating.

 

These things aren't necessarily incompatible with Christianity -- you just have to be willing to set aside certain damaging beliefs as manmade cultural artifacts at the same time you prioritize your own faith in things you believe to be from God. Most Christians are happy to set aside slavery and polygamy and proscriptions against pork, but innocently suggesting that perhaps the similar proscription against homosexuality (or even St. Paul's grumbling order for women to cover their heads and stop daring to speak in church) should similarly be set aside has made me somewhat unpopular among certain of my colleagues in the past  

[oromendur]

On 9/16/2019 at 8:28 PM, Sciread77 said:

Oh goodness. Realized I’m not following. 

 

Rectified. 

 

Welcome! I'm always grateful for your thoughtful presence. 

 

I'm trying to stay current on all Adventurer threads, but I don't do it through the forums because the ensuing flurry of notifications makes me anxious, so just know I'm following yours in spirit 

[oromendur]

On 9/16/2019 at 9:34 PM, Ann of Vries said:

But, hey, you had beautiful Finland to explore!

 

I did

 

And I'd go back in a heartbeat (although I'd probably plan to stock up a bit better before heading out into the boonies).

[oromendur]

On 9/18/2019 at 12:05 AM, Curl Brogo said:

I was a population geneticist (evolutionary genetics/theory). I was drawn to big questions about life, just coming from a different angle than mythology. Now I am a machinist. Meh. Life is funny.

 

Wasn't it Robert Heinlein who said "specialization is for insects?" Good for you! I'm fairly handy, but I think the precision of machining work would be very difficult for me.