Its a new year and I officially find myself in the job that has been one of the worst kept secrets out there: namely I’m now an adjunct professor at the Rochester Insitute of Technology’s School of Print Media. Here’s a shot of me in my new office, which I am sharing the office with a Jack Karpen of the School of Photography, whom I have yet to meet..

Note the door. This is something new for a refugee from a cube farm and shared graduate spaces.

I’ll be blogging at least four days a week starting today, documenting whats going on. And there is a lot. A LOT. For the moment, here is the story of how I landed this job. I originally wrote this summary for a local networking group that I’ve been involved with. It nicely sums up the last two years and will catch everyone up on the employment story thus far:

In the fall of 2004, I took an educational leave of absence from kodak.com to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Chicago. This past summer, after completing the classwork component, I returned to Rochester. Unfortunately, with education leaves there is never a guarantee of employment and I learned that there was no longer a position available for me at Kodak. So I began networking, including joining PeerNet, while I worked on researching and writing my thesis.

As part of that networking, I wanted to get in touch with people who were engaged in similar research on social networks. I posted a note about it on my blog and a friend sent me an e-mail suggesting that I contact the Lab for Social Computing at RIT. Researching the Lab, I realized that I had met one of its members a number of years ago through a common friend. So I dropped Tim an e-mail. He in turn suggested that I contact another member of the Lab. Amit was interested in talking with me and he suggested meeting at RIT before a lecture he was planning to attend. When I got to RIT I found out that a former professor of mine, Frank Cost, was giving the lecture. After discussing our research Amit and I both attended the lecture. That gave me a chance to say hi to Frank at the meet-and-greet that followed the talk. Frank, in turn, was excited to hear about my time at the University and suggested that we might grab lunch.

To cut to the chase, that lunch has led to a six month teaching appointment with the School of Print Media and the possibility of a tenure track position.

I’m back from Chicago and all graduated and stuff. Drea and I fly back to Rochester earlier today. Unfortunately, my cell phone apparently decided that it wanted to see the world and stayed on the plane we took from Chicago to Dulles (the hub that Independence Air uses). So I am, once again, temporarily without phone. This time, if the phone does not surface within the next 24 hours, I will be buying a new one.

More on Graduation to follow tomorrow.

Tomorrow I’ll move an important step closer to pulling away a bit of the mystery that has been surrounding the blog and my life. I’ll be going on an important interview. Should everything work out, I’ll finally let the cat out of the bag and let you know what my employment plans for the next year or two are.

Why the secrecy you ask? Primarily it’s because I really want this to happen. I really, really, really, want this to happen. And this has caused me to be a bit superstitious. I don’t want to do anything to jinx this. More so, I also don’t want to announce it to the world and then have it fall through. Being this close and having that happen would be a blow that I really don’t want to take. So, for the moment, I’m keeping things under wraps.

Beyond that, on Thursday, Drea and I fly out to Chicago. The next day, at around 2.00pm or so, I’m taking the big walk. I cannot say how excited I am to see Chicago and the University again. And most importantly, I’m super excited to finally be graduating. I wish I could have walked with most of my friends last summer or spring. Still everything has its season and I’m quite happy with how things have worked out.

Things are very tense! I am one grade away from graduating and I do not know if that grade will be delivered in time. I just found out that I got an “A” in my photo course. Which rocks, and means that I got a 4.0 at the University of Chicago for Spring Quarter.

However, my Language in Culture grade is still not in. And if it does not get in, I do not graduate. I’m just a wee bit tense over this, as a lot is riding on that grade. Or rather the graduation. Which is riding on the grade. So I guess the first statement was right.

Things with Drea’s dad are also complex right now. To attempt to sum it up in a sentence or two would be a mistake. There is going to have to be surgery. We are waiting to learn how radical it needs to be.

Thesis -> Done
Language in Culture -> Done
Photo and Film Theory -> Done with a near heart attack (I forgot to attach the final… everything is cool now as far as I can tell).

My last Chicago paper is in. Its all but done. Lots to share in the days ahead.

Lots I say.

But for now… sleep.

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