The Week in Review(s)

Man of Steel is fucking fantastic. I shouldn't have to say this, because you should've gone to see it already. But, I am saying it, and it is. That trailer above should prove it -- unlike some other trailers, every scene in that one is in the movie. It's the best superhero film I've seen since The Dark Knight. Keep in mind that The Dark Knight came out five years ago. I understand this is saying a lot, and I understand that some of you may not agree or will say I'm overstating things, but if you're a Superman fan (or even know the slightest bit about his character/origin/etc), you'll probably agree with me once you see this film. I've never wanted to see a movie in the theater more than once before -- I want to go see Man of Steel several times, and will absolutely be purchasing the Blu-ray when it comes out. I'm not sure a better present day, 21st century Superman picture could be made, really.

A lot of critics have panned the picture as dark and morose and hollow; it's not. Not in the least. I could write dissertations for years on the themes running through this movie. Upon closer examination, as I told my former officemate Zac (who saw it on opening night), the critics who are panning the film are the ones expecting to go in there and see Richard Donner's happy-go-lucky, "Truth, Justice, and the American way Superman," without realizing in retrospect that while the first two Donner films were cinematic masterpieces in their own right, they were in 1978 and 1980, and by today's standards hold up a lot less strongly than you probably remember simply because of their bright colors and campiness factor (read, they weren't incredibly realistic, and were actually pretty goofy at times). This is a serious, thought-provoking post-9/11 Superman film that handles these characters, and their situations, in a wholly realistic light, and treats the mythos with the utmost respect possible for the big screen. For any film, however, there are going to be points of dissension; there are a few very minor issues (and one semi-large one) in this movie that have the fanboys' hair standing on end and crying foul, but as a lifelong Superman fan who is pretty damned knowledgeable about the comics? I didn't allow these issues to bother me, because I know the history of the characters involved. Not only that, but I've read the stories they are more than likely intended, somehow, to mirror.

For those of you who are getting bored of my long-winded, excited review? I'll sum it up with this: the effects are beautiful, the storytelling is fantastic and is about as close to the comics as one can get in a big-budget Hollywood picture, the actors are well-cast and deliver brilliant performances, and once Henry Cavill puts on the suit, you don't miss the red underpants at all. I haven't gotten this much enjoyment out of a movie in several years, and the brilliance of it all is that it has almost universal appeal -- for those of us who are fans, it's great, yes, but for those of us who have almost no knowledge of Superman or comics whatsoever? It's also great. Daisy, who isn't nerdy at all (as you know) and who has very little knowledge of comics or Superman aside from the basics (Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Smallville, Metropolis, Daily Planet, etc) loved the film as well.

Daisy also doesn't cry during movies, even during the saddest scenes ever. She cried three times during this film. Yes. Three.

Anyway. See the movie. Now, on with the rest of the week.

As you know from my previous posts earlier, Daisy came down on Tuesday evening, and stayed until this morning. And, quite obviously, we went to see Man of Steel on Wednesday evening, in 3D (primarily because I didn't want to wait another several hours to see the 2D version). We did a little shopping and cooking, and ventured out around the town, but didn't do much else while she was here because of the heat. I'll get to that too.

I have basically become a fully nocturnal individual these days, but I am getting a lot of different things accomplished. In the past several days, I've applied for easily twenty-five (or more) teaching jobs, and several administrative and/or writing positions -- including about 8-10 more on Monday night alone.

I've got my eyes on the prize, so to speak, but again, the problem is that none of these positions I'm applying for are in the Omaha area...because there aren't any of these positions in the Omaha area. Not even administrative positions. As mentioned before, right now I'm trying to stay in the education field while I still have the window to do so, as it's what I know, what I'm good at, and what I am most experienced in. And those positions, teaching or otherwise, just aren't open in Nebraska. Yes, Nebraska. As in, the entire state. I've looked, repeatedly. I've also been running into a problem more often over the past few days now where the job posting on the website (whichever one I'm using at the time, usually either HigherEdJobs.com or Monster) is outdated, and the position has since either been filled or has closed. This is why I'm applying for everything I find that I can do -- I want to beat that unknown window, and definitely beat out any other applicants for said positions if possible.

I haven't received any calls or emails about the positions I've already applied for, of course, though it's not like I'm giving up hope or anything. But it has made me rethink my strategies somewhat, and the time running out has emboldened me to apply for more positions, as many as I can, to jump through the hoops and register for the job systems on all of these different college websites, etc. However, with the lack of jobs both around my area and around Daisy's area, I've been forced to -- for the moment, anyway -- go with my odds and familiar surroundings/known abilities and known places. This means that I've been applying for a lot of teaching positions around the tri-state area of my home state of West Virginia. I've applied for teaching positions at three different colleges in the state, and applied for a writing job at my alma mater of West Virginia University. However, most of my focus has been in and around the Pittsburgh area, as, well, I'd much rather live there than live in West Virginia again if I had the choice. I've mentioned this before.

Of course, since Daisy's been here most of this week, I haven't applied for anything new since Monday night because I've not been on my computer for 12+ hours every day as I normally am when I'm home alone. This weekend starts my job hunt anew with more applications and more forms to inevitably fill out and submit to all sorts of different educational facilities.

Something I have noticed, though, is the frequency of what I call "why are you contacting me" emails and calls from recruiters. I've received no less than three emails and two calls/voicemails this past week from recruiters in my area wanting me to work sales positions or entry-level temp jobs manning phones or telemarketing. I do not understand this in the least; all of them have said either in their voicemail or email that they found my information on Monster. Well, good for them, but for them to have gotten my phone number they would have clearly needed to read my CV, which is tailored to teaching/editing/writing positions and nothing else and specifically says that's what I'm looking for. Yes, I am more than capable to do sales work or telemarketing if I wanted to. But I didn't go through seven years of higher education and get two degrees to end up in a telemarketing job that I could've done with no degrees. I have therefore dismissed these folks out of principle, though I would imagine they'll keep calling/emailing, and if things get really grim over the course of the next few months, I may have no other option eventually. I'd rather that not become the case.

Daisy and I have done rough calculations, and I need to be making at least $25k a year before taxes, in addition to her own income from our household (given the job she has now), for us to be able to pay bills and student loans without excessive worrying or penny-pinching. And that's scraping by almost at the bare minimum. No low-level sales or telemarketing job is going to pay me $25k a year. And that's setting the bar really, really low. Most of the teaching positions I've applied for -- those which list their salary on the application/posting, anyway -- start at $35k, and some are even in the $45k to $50k range.

And, of course, we're also basing our expectations on what we'd need to survive based on costs of living in the Omaha area, even though I've not found anything there, because that's what Daisy knows. Other areas, of course, will have much lower or much higher costs of living.

Rae tells me I should seriously consider the Cincinnati area, after I asked her what the job market is like there. She said most teaching positions are union only, and that the higher education there tends to hire PhD students on as GTAs, basically, to avoid hiring any real staff (again, remember, being a GTA is one step up from slave labor, really), but it's a very live-able city. I also know that Rae isn't exactly independently wealthy, so the fact that she can live there with no major issues is sort of encouraging.

In other news, I have been incredibly uncomfortable over the course of the past few days. Not mentally or anything, but physically. It's been in the low-to-mid-90s every day, and while most of the time it has been cloudy and windy, all that does is blow hot air around and make me sweat from every pore on my body. Daisy and I, when we've been awake, have spent more time in the basement with the fan blowing on us than anywhere else in the house. If we're not doing that, it's only because we've left the house to go somewhere with air conditioning or to simply drive around with the air conditioner on in her car. The clouds have made it unbearably muggy, but despite numerous forecasts for possible rain and storms over the past four days (all of which have been murky and gray), we've gotten nothing here in Newton -- which makes the heat and air movement feel that much more oppressive. When the wind stops, it feels like you're slammed with a brick wall of heat from which there is no escape. Even with all of my windows open and the fans in the house running, very little of that air flows through the house.

The temperature in my house has never dipped below 82, and it usually runs in the 88-92 range. I ran the air conditioner twice, for a few hours each time, while Daisy was here. It'll bring it down to about 82 or 84, but no lower, no matter what. It's usually a tad cooler in the basement/bedroom, but not by much -- hence why when we're down there, the fan is blowing on us from three feet away at full power, and we barely even feel it. Yes, the air is that thick.

My ability to tolerate heat has rapidly degenerated over the past two years or so. It is not as hot (yet) this summer as it was last summer and summer 2011, but I already can't really take it. It makes me physically ill, it keeps me from eating, and more than that, it keeps me from being able to sleep.

I've been having some real sleep issues this week. Bad ones. I'll sleep for about two or three hours at a time, at most, and I can only do that when I have completely physically and mentally exhausted myself. One or the other won't do -- I have to completely run myself ragged into total exhaustion on both fronts to be able to sleep. Add to this that I frequently have trouble sleeping when Daisy is here anyway, and this past week has been nothing but body aches, fatigue, queasiness, and oppressive heat. None of it is her fault, of course, and it never is -- I just can't rest. And I wasn't going to take a sleeping pill and sleep for fourteen hours while she was here, because that would have been a waste of our time together. Last night after dinner, I fell asleep on the couch in the living room because I'd reached that exhaustion point regardless of the heat. I seriously just passed out; I went from full consciousness to unconsciousness in a matter of moments while Daisy was washing the dishes -- which couldn't have taken more than ten minutes. I'd been feeling dizzy, so it's quite possible that I just fainted -- I'm pretty sure I'd been suffering mild heatstroke all day.

When I awoke, I was positively soaked in my own sweat as if I'd been sprayed down by a water hose, and could barely move. Across the room, Daisy sat in the chair nonchalantly reading one of my issues of Playboy. I don't really remember much after that. I remember going downstairs only vaguely, and next waking up at 8:30 this morning so Daisy could get ready to go home. She left this morning and went back to Omaha once we got up, and arrived there safely a few hours ago. She has to go back to work tonight, so she's going back to sleep (apparently while I was sleeping most of the night, she wasn't, but I didn't know that; I was dead to the world).

I have a fair amount of groceries now, thanks to our shopping while she was here, but have now exhausted my petty cash left over from my tax refunds. I have three dollars left in my wallet in actual cash. I suppose I'm somewhat okay with this; I have a lot of food in the house and won't have to go out for anything but cigarettes and cat litter for the next several weeks, and I've got a little bit of extra money about to be deposited into my bank account courtesy of the people who sent me graduation checks over the past month or so. I'll still have bills to pay, of course, but I'm not necessarily worried about running low on funds, and shouldn't be for a while. I'm hoping I get at least a callback or a response from some of those teaching positions soon, however.

Tonight I'm shaving off the beard. Or, at the very least, I'm shaving it down drastically. Probably, anyway. It depends on how much energy I have and whether I can stand to be in the hot bathroom for half an hour without being under the cold stream of the shower. It's way too hot to keep it as is, and it's only going to get hotter as the summer moves onward. When I go up to Omaha for the 4th, one of my missions is also to get a haircut, as you folks already know...if I can last that long without going somewhere here around town to get it done beforehand, of course. I'm not exactly looking forward to this, but it's necessary when it's this hot all the time, and when I have to start looking somewhat respectable for possible Skype interviews.

Really, more than anything else I just want to feel, and be, comfortable when it's this hot and there's no relief in sight in the weather forecast. If I'm too hot for too long, again, I'm no longer as tolerant of it as I once was, and my body/energy levels start to break down. As it's rather important that this doesn't happen while I'm looking for work and/or busied with things that need to be done, well...I don't really have much of a choice in the haircut-and-shave department.

On that note, it's really, really hot today, so I'm going to bed downstairs where it's cool.